Rainfall buoys work on Greenwood fire, which stands at 14% containment

Up to 2 inches of rain fell over the weekend on parts of the Greenwood fire, which now stands at 14% containment, a key milestone in stopping its rapacious spread.

That figure could further improve Sunday as firefighters took advantage of the weather, working directly on the fire perimeter, said Clark McCreedy, public information officer with the team managing the fire.

The team's meteorologist tracked between 1.25 and 2 inches of rainfall Saturday and early Sunday over the 26,000-acre blaze.

"There is a palpable sense of relief," McCreedy said Sunday. "All that rain helps to extinguish existing hot spots."

It also aids crews deepening the containment line, he said, working within a shovel's length of one another, turning over logs, burying ashes and hunting for heat.

The containment, along the northwest corner of the fire line, signals officials' confidence the fire will not cross that threshold. Hundreds of workers stretching around the fire's perimeter are now working to fortify the rest of the fire line in Superior National Forest.

Crews are clearing fallen trees along Hwy. 2, hoping to fully contain the fire's western border and keep the road clear for passage. On the southeast corner, crews are looking for areas to hold the line, either along Hwy. 1 or the Stony River, to protect the town of Isabella.

Depending on weather and wind, the team hoped to work along the Stony River Grade Road, the fire's eastern perimeter — widening the road, removing dead trees and starting fires to create a containment line.

The weekend's rain was "well-received," Pete Glover, operations sections chief for the Eastern Area Incident Management Team, said in a Sunday briefing. "By no means has it put the fire out, but it does provide us an opportunity to get in there and make some progress, prepping our fire lines and preparing for drier weather coming in the next several weeks."

The U.S. Forest Service is managing a smattering of other, smaller blazes throughout northern Minnesota, including the John Ek fire — which is about 1,563 acres — and the 50-acre Whelp fire burning north of Tofte in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

The weekend's light rain on the Gunflint Trail held those two fires in place.

If weather allowed, the fire management team hoped to bring out a four-person reconnaissance crew from the "complex" John Ek fire on Sunday, Glover said in his update. Those firefighters have been scouting portages for safe access, hoses and sprinklers.

Staff writer Kristen Leigh Painter contributed to this report.