About 800 firefighters and contractors are laying hoses, mounting sprinklers and triaging homes along the Echo Trail to protect structures that could fall in the path of northern Minnesota wildfires.
At Fenske Lake, crews pumped water from the lake to cabin-top sprinklers while others cleared brush along Grassy Lake Road, where officials aim to connect Bear Trap and Camp fire lines.
The 5-mile vegetation break toward Picket Lake is meant to slow any renewed spread south toward more properties and eventually the towns of Ely and Winton; bulldozers were being brought in to reinforce it.
Fire activity has eased since last week and crews are starting to gain containment, but teams are still preparing for flare-ups with hundreds of miles of hose staged along the Echo and Fernberg corridors.
Duluth firefighters are part of a broader state response, using wildland experience to expand a relatively new local program as five large fires burn in the Superior National Forest and Boundary Waters.