Wildfire — Central St. Louis, Minnesota

2025-05-12 to 2025-05-31 · Central St. Louis, Minnesota

Event narrative

The Jenkins Creek Fire ignited on Monday, May 12, 2025, around 1PM local time. It was detected east of County Road 110 and north of County Road 16 near Jenkins Creek, approximately 15 miles southeast of Hoyt Lakes, Minnesota. It was believed to have been started by a discarded cigarette from a passing vehicle. The fire rapidly expanded due to hot temperatures, low relative humidity, and strong south winds, burning through mixed boreal forest and grassy ground cover, including areas heavily infested by spruce budworm, which contributed to the fire's intensity.

The fire initially exhibited extreme behavior, including crown fires and rapid spread through dense forested areas. The presence of dead and dying trees, particularly those affected by spruce budworm infestations, provided ample fuel for the fire's growth. After a couple days, the spread slowed as crews responded, winds subsided, and moisture moved into the area. Firefighters were able to take advantage of that opportunity and built a line that held through another wind event a few days later. Since then, containment continued to be effectively established with full containment achieved on June 21st. The fire reached a maximum size of 16,490 acres.

Wider weather episode

The month of May began with overall dry conditions across the county. Green up had not occurred yet following the winter allowing fire weather conditions to increase during the first two weeks of the month. By the 11th and 12th, very warm, dry and breezy southerly winds were in place and three large fires started over those two days, the Camp House fire, the Jenkins Creek fire and the Munger Shaw fire. The fires spread quickly in those conditions and outside resources were called in to fight the fires. The Munger Shaw fire reached 1,259 acres in size and was contained on the afternoon of June 13th. The Camp House and Jenkins Creek fires were in fairly close proximity and were managed as one as the Brimson Complex. Containment for these two fires was not achieved until mid June with the Camp House reaching 12,071 acres in size and Jenkins Creek 16,490 acres. Around 150 structures were affected by the fires with most of them in the Camp House fire.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1261145. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.