LUCE COUNTY -- It's like there's no stopping it. The Duck Lake Wildfire is among the largest Michigan has seen in years. Dean Wilson of the Department of Natural Resources says he's never seen a fire like this in his career.
"It's burning in a very volatile jack pine fuel type. Containment is very difficult because of that. It's really tough to get next to it to put in a fire break," said Wilson, Public Information Officer for the DNR.
Wilson escorted me to the fire line to see the damage first hand. The fire is deep in the woods of Luce County. You can see the jack pines ignite under the plumes of darker smoke above the tree line. We decided to stop when the smoke got to be too thick.
At its peak the fire was spreading at a rate of 1.7 miles per hour, leaving ash and burnt forest in its wake. Containment is still far from over, but the fire has slowed down since. Fire crews have successfully contained the nearby small fires that have popped up in the last couple of days.
"The weather's not cooperating well, but we're doing a good job here, and this one's going out," said Fire Officer Nick Wheeler.
As long as there remains an ample fuel source, the Duck Lake Wildfire won't be slowing down soon. This will be a busy Memorial Day weekend for the fire fighters as they work to make sure that Luce County residents and their homes remain safe.
The Marquette National Weather Service has also been keeping up with the fire and has detailed fire weather forecast information available. They also have several images of the fire that have been seen onradar and satellite.
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