Wildfire in Crow Wing, Minnesota

The Flanders Fire began on Saturday, May 16, 2026, at approximately 12:45PM local time on the northern shore of Flanders Lake near Mission, Minnesota. Very dry and windy conditions were in place with westerly winds gusting to 30 to 40 mph during the early afternoon with relative humidity values falling below 30%, creating dangerous fire weather conditions across the region. The fire was likely started by a campfire and quickly spread to 600 acres by 5:30PM local time that evening. The fire continued to spread overnight and into Sunday the 17th, reaching a maximum size of 1,685 acres. Cooler weather and lighter winds allowed fire crews to make significant progress on the fire reaching 60% containment by late on the 18th and full containment by early evening on the 20th. The fire did not destroy any homes, but a few did sustain damage. A few secondary buildings were destroyed, such as sheds. County Road 11 was closed for a time during the fire and large areas were evacuated ahead of the fire.

The month of April ended with well above normal precipitation but that quickly transitioned to very dry conditions in May with rainfall amounts only around 5-20% of normal over the first half of the month. Some locations in the Brainerd Lakes area to near Grand Rapids received little, if any precipitation during this time. With green up yet to occur, fuels quickly dried out across the region. May 15th saw a deep low pressure system pass by well to the north setting up westerly to southwesterly winds gusting to 30 to 40 mph the 15th and 16th with very dry conditions lead to Red Flag Warnings across the Northland. Multiple fires began over those two days with two fires, the Flanders Fire and the Stewart Trail Fire becoming quite large and leading to evacuations. The fires spread quickly in those conditions and outside resources were called in to fight the fires. The Flanders Fire reached 1,685 acres in size and was contained on the afternoon of the 20th. The Stewart Trail fire near Two Harbors reached 375 acres in size and destroyed over 30 structures, including homes and cabins along Lake Superior.