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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Pike Flowage house destroyed by fire

Marshall Helmberger
Posted 6/14/17

VERMILION LAKE TWP — A house and associated bunkhouse on the Pike River flowage were destroyed by fire early Wednesday morning, possibly due to a lightning strike. The fire was reported by a jogger …

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Pike Flowage house destroyed by fire

Posted

VERMILION LAKE TWP — A house and associated bunkhouse on the Pike River flowage were destroyed by fire early Wednesday morning, possibly due to a lightning strike. The fire was reported by a jogger shortly before 8 a.m.

The main house had apparently burned to the ground overnight and a nearby bunkhouse was on fire. Firefighters from Vermilion Lake, Tower, and Greenwood responded quickly to the scene, along with St. Louis County deputies, who provided traffic control along Hwy. 1, just west of the Pike Flowage bridge. Firefighters brought the bunkhouse blaze under control fairly quickly, although the structure appears to be a total loss.

The buildings were part of the former home of Gib and Jean McClelland, but the McClellands had sold the property three years ago to Big City Mountaineering, a nonprofit organization that takes inner-city youth on wilderness adventures.

The group had been using the former residence as a base of operations for canoe trips into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The organization had planned to begin trips for the 2017 season starting next week.

A fire investigator was set to visit the site on Thursday, but early indications suggest that a lightning strike may have produced an electrical surge within the two structures, causing the fire. A series of intense thunderstorms passed through the area late Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning, with heavy rain, lightning, and periodic hail.