Local Emergency & Disaster Declared, St. Louis County

DULUTH, Minn.– After over a week of battling the wildfires that has cost 30-thousand acres of land, Tuesday morning the St Louis County Board signed a declaration of local state emergency and disaster.

8 days following this disaster, this declaration is a step in the right direction to ensure adequate funding.

Over 150 structures, and at least 30 year-round homes were destroyed from the fire.

Despite the declaration happening today, officials have worked tirelessly to preserve and protect the land.

Sheriff Gordon Ramsay says, this opportunity opens the potential to cover a handful of expenses this fire has caused.

“There are other expenses that pop up that people don’t realize. So, you’ve got your funding for the residents and property owners. And then you’ve got funding for local Governments, fire agencies. And in Minnesota, it’s the counties that oversees the declaration, so the money funnels through emergency management back to those entities in many cases,” said Sheriff Gordon Ramsay, St. Louis County.

This meeting was also a chance to recognize and recap the hard work from the 400 firefighters, and the swift action taken at the time of crisis.

In addition, consistent communication throughout the event was also praised as well.

“I think Sheriff Ramsay did outstanding. The whole staff, I mean we had updates, and we heard from commissioners that were there we heard from staff. But I was gone the last couple of days, and I did have updates from Sheriff Ramsay on his Facebook. So, anything we can do to be in the loop, we do that because it affects everything that happens right here to our constituents at St Louis County,” said Mike Jugovich, 7th District Commissioner.

For the future, St Louis County Board Commissioners are working to create a future fund in case of another natural disaster.

This will ensure a proactive response, rather than a reactive one.