Southern Minnesota Wildfire: A Business Owner's Terrifying Account

Over the weekend a wildfire ravaged a portion of Southern Minnesota near Waseca. A business owner located near the fire shared what it was like as they watched the fire quickly approach their business and the real fear they felt up until the moment the wind changed direction.

With how crazy our winter has been, and not having snow/moisture, it makes me wonder if we are going to see more wildfires like this one. Pleasant Grove Pizza Farm, located near Waseca, shared what it was like as the fire approached their business, while they were also teaching a pizza-making class.

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It began as a small plume of smoke to the south.

A fleeting thought to myself, that's weird, my neighbors are burning. Why are they burning?

15 min later a gentleman in class says he sees a grass fire. I thought to myself, well no, it's the neighbors. It's not that big.

I peer out and notice the little plume of smoke was much larger. And it was blowing in our direction. Soon after Bill tells me he has several missed calls and texts. I look at my phone and same thing.

I ring my neighbor back who informed me that there is in fact a wild fire burning about 1-1.5 miles south of us, moving north.

It was when the billowing smoke started rolling into us that I got scared. Mostly scared for the big girls & Kenny...how was i going to evacuate them? I tried to hide my nervousness from the class but I'm not sure I did that very well.

Bill comforted me and explained we were not in danger while another gentleman in class reminded me we have a toy hauler parked right outside the kitchen door if we need to move the animals...oh yeah

Soon after, the wind shifted taking the fire with it. However, I still was nervous and scared for all of my neighbors who were now in the wake of the fire. Also, it's hard to shake this kind of fear. And I feel terrible that I wasn't giving the classes my usual 100%.

I slowly turned (most of) my focus back to our smoke & fire. The smoke & fire were making people smile and laugh because they were having a blast learning how to cook their pizzas in a wood-fired brick oven... something they never thought they'd be able to do!

Thank you to everyone who reached out to us in concern Thank you to everyone who participated in the classes yesterday, despite the chaos. Thank you to ALL of the first responders who worked hard to control the burn. Thank you to all of the outside resources who came in to help protect our community

The Waseca County Pioneer reported that 2,000 acres of grassland were burned in the fire on Sunday.

It's unclear as to what started the fire, but it took several hours, multiple fire agencies, and hundreds of thousands of gallons of water to fight this fire.