Submitted Photo Smoke billows in front of a fire truck at the site of a rural fire at a homestead northwest of Burlington on Sunday that claimed several structures and engulfed around 200 vehicles. Photo by Chris Williams.

BURLINGTON – Firefighters from Burlington were joined by a dozen other local agencies on Sunday to contain a fire northwest of Minot threatening to consume a rural homestead as high winds continued to whip up the flames.

Burlington Rural Fire Chief Karter Lesmann reported the source of the fire was confirmed to be a burn barrel the homeowner had lit a day or so prior.

“It got going and started over by the house. The homeowner said he turned it some and it got going up by the house. He was down in his basement and his neighbor saw it start up first,” Lesmann said.

On Monday, Lesmann said the fire had already claimed four garages and a barn, and was threatening to also consume a grain bin. Containing the fire has been complicated by the flames engulfing around 200 vehicles also on the property, adding the risk of potential fuel and tire explosions from the many cars, buses and campers.

“With the wind picking up, we’ve had a lot of stuff flaring up on us. The house sits in the southeast corner of the property and the wind is picking up out of the northwest. We’ve had to constantly work our way through here and knock down as many hot spots as we can. Our goal is to not have the house burn down when the wind picks up,” Lesmann said.

A total of 55 firefighters from 12 agencies responded to the fire, with their efforts assisted by the North Dakota Forest Service who removed trees from a nearby tree row to provide additional access to the property. The American Red Cross also provided canteening services for the firefighters working the scene. Burlington Rural Fire remained to monitor the situation through Sunday evening, but Lesmann said that further assistance could be required as wind speeds picked up on Monday.

“We’ve been out here all night and we’ll be here all day today,” Lesmann said, “We’ve got over 200 cars here and any one of them could flare up at any time, so we’ve got to stay on top of them cause the winds aren’t really here yet. Once the wind starts up to 40 to 50 miles an hour with gusts even higher than that, there’ll be trouble.”