Lighting strike likely cause of wildfire near Lancaster

By Anna Jauhola
The Lancaster Fire Department responded to and quenched a small wildfire on Wednesday, April 22, north and west of Lancaster.
Chief Casey Faken said the call came in about 10:30 p.m. that a fire was burning on old CRP ground. A passerby had seen the fire burning from County Road 6. The area was still pretty wet and there’s still good frost in the ground, otherwise, the fire would have spread further and faster, Faken said. The fire made its way on dry, old CRP ground, and was driven by a 20-mph wind.
The fire department brought out five or six rigs to work on dispelling the fire, which they had under control by 11:30 p.m. or midnight. A border patrol agent came to the scene as well, noting he’d smelled smoke earlier in the evening. That evening brought thunder and lighting in the area, and officials are blaming the fire on a lighting strike in the middle of the old CRP ground.
“We had three pickups buried out there, it’s pretty wet!” Faken said. “But with those and two Rangers, we got it out in a timely manner.”
He added the fire had a lot of fuel in that dry CRP, noting it was a particularly hot fire. It burned long enough to consume about 60 acres.
Faken noted that Minnesota has issued several red flag warnings recently, including just on Thursday, April 23. This red flag warning included Kittson County.

To read the whole story, see the April 29, 2026, edition of the Kittson County Enterprise