How Do The 2026 BWCAW Wildfires Compare In Size To Other Recent Historic Minnesota Wildfires?

An outbreak of wildfires across the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Northeastern Minnesota erupted in early July of this year.

The quickly growing fires and ongoing dry conditions forced a closure of the entire BWCAW for a time, with evacuation zones in and around the Boundary Waters and near towns like Ely being put into effect.

In the later parts of July, the footprint of those evacuation zones has been reduced, and parts of the Boundary Waters were reopened as of July 30, showing signs of progress against these fires.

Hard work from crews and more favorable weather conditions have reduced the aggressive spread of these fires and have allowed teams to establish partial containment.

READ MORE: Northern Minnesota Businesses Reminding The World ‘We’re Still Open’ During Wildfires

Between the 7 largest fires and several smaller ones in this summer's BWCAW wildfire outbreak, a total of more than 69,000 acres have been consumed inside Minnesota. A few of these fires are at least partially in Canada as well, which you can see below.

As of the latest update on these fires, all of them have at least partial containment. Here's a look at the status of those fires in and around the area:

In addition, a series of other, smaller wildfires in the area have been contained in recent weeks.

When you add together the whole 69,000+ acres of all of these fires, this outbreak is the second-largest fire event in Minnesota in the last 20 years.

Get our free mobile app

Several of these individual fires from this summer's outbreak still rank among some of the largest in the last couple of decades. Here's a look at how they rank among the largest fires in the last 20 years.