Fires Bombed Into Submission

Dropping load after load of floodwater from a giant orange sling, an Air-Crane helicopter pilot bombed smoldering downtown Grand Forks fires into submission Sunday morning.

One crisis was almost over.

But uncounted more lie ahead for this city of 51,000 people - now three-fourths abandoned - as it desperately tries to keep pace with the flooding Red River.

With waters creeping perilously close to Interstate 29 on the western edge, the city itself has begun to take on the look of a wet ghost town. Dwindling pockets of residential areas still are considered safe.

While no deaths have been reported, almost all aspects of normal life in the valley have ground to a halt. Water is out. Lights are blinking out. Phones have gone dead.

By daylight Sunday, authorities got their first look at the charred downtown. Flames and burning debris had skipped unpredictably across a four-block area, destroying some buildings while leaving others relatively unscathed.

It took a special Air-Crane helicopter to douse the flames. Pilot Kenneth Chapman said it took more than 60 “drops” with a 2,000-gallon “Bambi bucket” to put out the fires.

“I’m used to fighting wildfires,” the Oregon-based pilot said Sunday. “I’ve never seen anything like this before. It’s pretty ugly down there.”

His chopper also was called over to the Minnesota side of the river to douse a house fire, and the helicopter will remain at the Grand Forks airport just in case any more fires break out.

All told, as many as 11 buildings in Grand Forks - none more than four stories high - have been heavily damaged. Deputy Fire Chief Peter O’Neill said he has no damage estimate.

Coming on top of floods that have buried the entire downtown in at least 3 feet of mucky water, the fires “were very frustrating, very sad, very difficult,” said O’Neill, whose crews worked round-the-clock and got help from aerial drops of flame retardants.