Marquette Township Wildfire
If you have to drive between Marquette and Big Bay in the next day or two, the DNR is asking you to be careful.
The agency has firefighters out battling a wildfire in Marquette Township.
The fire is on the north side of Sugarloaf Mountain near County Road 550.
The initial call came in shortly after 7 last night.
The blaze is estimated at 2.8 acres in size.
It’s mainly scorching brush, rocky terrain and the occasional tree.
DNR fire specialist Bryce Avery says their goal is to have the fire completely contained sometime tonight, and they’ve made good progress toward that, but swirling winds this afternoon complicated things.
Local fire personnel can’t get to the scene because the grade of the terrain is so steep, so the DNR is basically on its own.
The cause of the fire is unclear, but Avery says he believes it originated from a campfire.
He says the fire will continue to burn until we receive our next significant rainfall, which may not be for quite a while with the drought conditions we’re experiencing.
Smoke is drifting through the area, and the DNR is using the curb of County Road 550 as a staging area for its equipment, so the agency is asking drivers to use caution on that section of the road.