The Flanders Fire was reported just before 1 p.m. Saturday near Flanders Lake, about 5 miles southeast of Crosslake, and quickly grew to an estimated 600 acres as red flag warning conditions fueled the blaze. By nightfall, the Crosslake Community Center had shifted from a temporary evacuation point to an overnight shelter for people pushed out of the fire zone.

About a dozen evacuees were inside the center Saturday night, where the American Red Cross and Crow Wing County Community Services handed out dinner, snacks and water. At least seven dogs were also there, and county officials said they were working to accommodate pets as families settled in for the night.

For Tammy and Tim Southmayd, the warning came with little time to think. They left their home around 6 p.m. with their three dogs after learning their cabin area had already been evacuated. Tim Southmayd said, “Every one of us grabbed our vehicle,” as the couple headed out. Inside the center around 8 p.m., Nancy Anderson and Susan Hobbs were among the evacuees trying to make sense of how fast the fire had moved.

Hobbs said she first noticed what looked like a towering cloud while driving with a passenger, with blue sky still visible around it. Then, she said, it was clear: “that’s not a cloud.” The scene matched what firefighters were dealing with on the ground as the blaze spread under conditions that made any spark more dangerous than usual.

By Sunday morning, the Minnesota Incident Command System was set to begin leading the response. Sheriff Eric Klang said there had been some bleed over in the polygon used on the map to send alerts to residents, and deputies were going door to door to tell people it was time to leave. Later, Klang told evacuees that officials knew of no homes damaged in the fire, though some outbuildings likely had been lost.

Jacklin Steege, who was overseeing the evacuation point for Crow Wing County Public Health and also staged in Nimrod as a wildland firefighter with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, said information was still changing fast. “It’s so early right now and things are so fluid, so people are wanting more information than we have, but as soon as we get the evening briefing done, we'll share it with them,” Steege said. She also said, “The Nimrod dozer got pulled over there [to the Flanders Fire].”

The immediate question now is not whether the fire has already disrupted life around Crosslake — it clearly has — but how far the damage reaches once the state takes command and crews get a fuller look at the fire line in daylight.