New Lake County Wildfire Evacuation Zones
Lake County is rolling out new wildfire evacuation zones, and we are encouraging all residents, businesses, and property owners to become familiar with the updated zones. As an improvement to protecting our residents this effort is directly related to last year’s Camphouse Fire.
New zones can be found at: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/10688a627618414fa96159e8f70cba3c/page/Fire-Evacuation
What has changed: The zone sizes have been dramatically reduced allowing us to provide for a better readiness state through our mass notification and GIS systems. The previous zones were so large that realistically there could be all three evacuation stages in one zone, thus it didn’t provide a true evacuation readiness state for those closest to the fire hazard.
What has not changed: The three evacuation stages: READY, SET, and GO.
READY means “there is a potential for evacuation”
SET means “be prepared to evaluate in a moment’s notice”
GO means “evacuation immediately”
Additional information on wildfire readiness and Firewise programs:
Lake County Emergency Management:
(https://www.co.lake.mn.us/emergency-management/)
Wildfire Evacuation Checklist (fema.gov):
https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/wildfire-evacuationchecklist.pdf
Ready, Set, Go! – Ready for Wildfire:
https://www.readyforwildfire.org/prepare-for-wildfire/ready-set-go/
DNR’s fire danger and burning restrictions website:
https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/forestry/fire/firerating_restrictions.html
If you have any questions, please contact Lake County Emergency Management,
Warren LaPlante, at email: warren.laplante@co.lake.mn.us.
Northshore Journal: April 10 & 17, 2026
