Help Sought as Fires Rage Across North

Officials summoned help from Arizona and New Mexico to fight hundreds of fires burning in the northern two-thirds of the state. “We are at a point where it is difficult to extinguish any new fire that starts because it has been more than a month since we had any measurable rain,” said Jean Bergerson of the Minnesota Interagency Fire Center. “Five more crews with 20 persons each are on their way from Arizona and New Mexico.” The affected area extends from the shores of Lake Superior to just outside Minneapolis and St. Paul. More than 40,000 acres, most of it grassland, has burned.