Star Tribune
Fire crews stand ready in parched Minnesota
Just past Prior Lake, the earth was on fire.
Flames burrowed into the dry, peaty soil of Springfield Township and smoldered for days, as fire crews hacked and dug, trying to stop the flames before they threatened lives and property.
Peat has been a source of warmth and fuel for thousands of years. But usually it has to be cut out of the earth and dried before it can burn. Minnesota’s summer drought had turned the ground beneath our feet to kindling.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources estimates that 98% of the wildfires in this state are started by humans. A cigarette flicked out a car window. A pile of burning yard waste left unattended.
Small wildfires burned outside Prior Lake and Arlington in the Twin Cities metro this week. One was sparked by burning debris. The other fire’s cause has not been determined, but the odds are that one of us started it.
The temperatures are dropping. October is turning cold and clammy. As tempting as it might be to light an autumn bonfire, state fire officials are hoping you will not.
“Because of how dry things were, the peat moss in these wetlands, the roots and things, were burning literally underground,” said Prior Lake City Manager Jason Wedel. Fire crews battled the subterranean blaze with thermal imaging, digging toward hotspots before they could spread.
On Wednesday, the National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for large swaths of southwestern Minnesota, as high winds whipped across tinder-dry farmland and prairie.
Now is not the time, state fire officials remind us, to burn leaves or gather around a bonfire or shoot off incendiaries at a gender reveal party. Not without checking to make sure your community still is issuing burn permits, at least.
On the dry days, when high winds whip across drought-stressed fields and forests, “pretty much any spark or ignition out of doors could cause a fire to ignite,” said William Glesener, wildfire operations supervisor for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
The DNR has responded to more than 550 wildfires so far this year – well below the 2,000-plus fires it battled in 2021, thanks to this year’s late, soggy spring. But on Wednesday, fire officials were keeping a wary eye on counties like Cottonwood, Jackson, Lincoln, Lyon, Murray, Nobles, Pipestone and Rock, where there wasn’t enough rain in the forecast to make up for months of drought.
In the counties under red flag warnings, the state is asking residents to keep their properties clear of debris, and keep a hose handy, just in case.
“Just to make sure that if something were to happen, they could wet down the area around their house or their property,” Glesener said. “But the biggest thing is to just make sure that folks are not going outside and doing any debris burning – that’s still fairly common in the state of Minnesota. People like to pile up and burn leaves and brush when they’re cleaning up their property in the fall.”
The smell of burning leaves is one of the signature scents of autumn, but it’s not a smell anyone would welcome around Prior Lake right now.
Fire crews had just smothered the peat fire in Springfield Township when word came that a barn was on fire. The humans and animals were safe, Wedel said, but Prior Lake won’t be issuing burn permits for a bit.
His advice for the time being: “Don’t burn things.”
“You’ve got to be able to say, ‘Here’s how much we want to spend, and here’s what we want the impact to be,’” Carter said.
During the council meeting, Johnson, the Ward 7 council member, alluded to those statements, saying people have used such language to try to discredit women in leadership, especially young women. This is the first budget from St. Paul’s new all-women council.
Staff writer James Walsh contributed to this report.
After months of maintenance problems and safety concerns in downtown St. Paul’s Lowry Apartments, city officials condemned the building, forcing dozens of tenants to abruptly relocate to hotels this week.
On Monday afternoon, city staff responded to a plumbing leak in the 11-story building at 345 Wabasha St. N. Officials reported significant damage and signs of vandalism, including copper wire theft that left electrical systems exposed. The leak also raised concerns about mold.
To make repairs, the building’s water must be shut off — a move that would leave tenants without boiler heat and fire sprinklers, Deputy Mayor Jaime Tincher said in a Tuesday email to state Rep. Maria Isa Pérez-Vega and City Council Member Rebecca Noecker, who represent the area.
After determining heat and water could not be restored quickly, Tincher wrote: “There was no other option than to conclude the building was not safe for residents to stay.”
Property manager Halverson and Blaiser Group (HBG) agreed to provide alternative housing for tenants for up to 30 days, Tincher said. City staff worked with Ramsey County’s Housing Stability team and Metro Transit to help 71 residents pack and move.
Before then, the building belonged to downtown St. Paul’s largest property owner, Madison Equities. After the January death of the company’s founder and longtime principal, Jim Crockarell, the dire state of the group’s real estate portfolio became apparent.
The Lowry Apartments, the sole property with a high concentration of low-income housing, quickly became the most troubled. Residents reported frequent break-ins, pest infestations, inoperable elevators and more, to no avail.
Star Tribune
Metro Transit allocated $12 million to boost security, cleanliness on Twin Cities light rail and buses
They will be soon. With more money to spend, Metro Transit plans to bring on 40 more this year. With their ranks growing, TRIP agents, clad in blue, have recently started covering the Metro C and D rapid transit lines between Brooklyn Center and downtown Minneapolis.
The big investment in public safety initiatives comes as Metro Transit is seeing an uptick in ridership that plunged dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic and has been slow to recover. This year ridership has been a bright spot, the agency said.
Through October, the agency has provided 40.1 million rides, up 7% compared with the first 10 months of 2023. In September, the agency saw its highest monthly ridership in four years, averaging nearly 157,000 rides on weekdays, agency data shows.
At the same time, crime is down 8.4% during the first three quarters of 2024 compared to the same time period last year, according to Metro Transit Interim Police Chief Joe Dotseth. However, problems still persist.
On Nov. 29, Sharif Darryl Walker-El, Jr., 33, was fatally shot on a Green Line train in St. Paul. Just a week earlier, a woman was shot in the leg while on the train and taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Earlier this year, a robbery attempt on the Green Line in St. Paul left a passenger shot and wounded.
“Our officers are spending time on the system and sending a clear message to everyone: Crime will not be tolerated on transit,” Dotseth said. “And we will work to ensure those commit those crimes are held accountable.”
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