Traverse City’s Wildfire Weekend: What To Know About Last Weekend’s Spate Of Local Fires

If you follow Grand Traverse 911 on Facebook, you’re familiar with that page’s typical updates: lots of advisories regarding local car accidents, roadway closures, and travel conditions during inclement weather. Here and there, you might see the occasional alert about local power outages or scam attempts. A post from last weekend, though, alerted northern Michigan residents to a less common local threat: wildfires.

“First Responders are dealing with multiple wildfires throughout the county,” the Sunday afternoon post announced. “Please be careful with outdoor burning. Not a good time.”

The next day brought another fire alert, this one about a tent fire in The Pines. That incident led to a brief closure of 11th Street as the Traverse City Fire Department worked to extinguish the roughly quarter-acre blaze.

Wildfires are on the brain for American citizens these days, following a period of massive devastation in California earlier this year. According to the Western Fire Chiefs Association, of the 10 deadliest wildfires in California history, two of them happened in 2025: the Palisades Fire, which burned 23,448 acres, destroyed 6,834 structures, and killed 11 people; and the Eaton Fire, which burned 14,021 acres, torched 9,418 structures, and caused 17 deaths. Those fires came just a few years after wildfires in Canada caused a summer full of hazy skies and hazardous air quality throughout parts of the United States, including right here in Traverse City.

All the recent fires beg the question: Could something similar happen in northern Michigan?

Statistically, Michigan is not one of the leading states for wildfire activity. According to Statista, there were 64,897 wildland fires in the U.S. in 2024, 8,316 of which (about 12.8 percent) happened in California. Only two other states had more than 4,000 wildfires (Texas, with 4,967; and North Carolina, with 4,668), and every other state except Oklahoma (which had 3,041) tallied fewer than 3,000. Michigan had just 447 wildfires in 2024, ranking 35th of all states.

But Michigan’s status as a low-risk state for wildfires doesn’t mean it has no risk – something local first responders saw firsthand last weekend.

“From the dispatch perspective, I can tell you that we have dealt with 10 separate wildfire events in the past three days,” Corey LeCureaux, deputy director for Grand Traverse Central Dispatch 911, told The Ticker when reached for comment on Monday. “At one point on Saturday, we had three wildfire events all occurring at the same time.”

Gregg Bird, emergency management coordinator for Grand Traverse County, says his department “was advised of these incidents that thankfully turned out to be minor.” The area that saw the largest number of those fires, he says, was Blair Township.

“Sunday, we responded to two incidents at the same time,” shares Bill Parker, fire chief for the Blair Township Fire Department. “One of the fires [burned] just under 10 acres off Wilson Road; the other one was two acres off Hamlin Road. No structures were damaged, and there were no injuries.”

On Monday, Parker’s crew responded to another fire on Fish Creek Road – a three-acre inferno where he says “there was a car that burned because of the fire.”

The first two incidents, Parker notes, occurred because people were burning debris and failed to keep the fires contained. The third was caused by “a person working on a vehicle.” All three, he says, “prove that fires can spread quickly in these conditions.”

Technically, Grand Traverse County has enjoyed a wet spell lately: According to the National Integrated Drought Information System, last month was the county’s third wettest March on record, with rainfall up 3.09 inches from the average. But those wet conditions haven’t eliminated fire risks, especially given a recent run of windy weather, and especially considering a dry 2024. Per the MSU-based Capital News Service, drought conditions were so bad in Michigan last that the fall fire season “produced more than double the seasonal wildfires originally anticipated.”

A post-winter rash of local wildfires isn’t uncommon in northern Michigan, according to Parker. Each spring, his team sees an increase in wildland fires throughout Blair Township, many caused by people who start burning earlier than they should.

“Waiting until things green up and we’ve had more rain is needed [before you have a fire],” Parker says. “The big thing is to check with the DNR to see if burning is allowed or not on each given day. The person that starts the fire is responsible if the fire does not stay in the confined area.”

LeCureaux echoed Parker's guidance, encouraging locals to check burn permitting information before having a campfire or striking up a blaze to burn last season’s leaves or fallen tree branches. That information is available via the state’s Burn Permits Management System website, which is updated multiple times daily by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

The management system includes township-by-township details about whether or not burning permits have been issued for that area. If a township doesn't have a burn permit issued for a given day, then open debris burning in that area is prohibited there unless a permit is granted specifically by the Grand Traverse Metro Fire Department.

“You will be in violation of state law if you burn debris without a permit,” the DNR page states.

In the wake of a Thursday night rainstorm, most Grand Traverse townships had burn permits as of Friday, though a few – including Acme, East Bay, and Garfield – still had restrictions in effect.

“Public safety resources are not unlimited,” LeCureaux concluded. “Wildfires are dangerous and require a lot of manpower. We are asking the public to please be aware of burning restrictions, and to try and remember the possible strain that a fire puts on the system. If the public is in danger, we are going to send help. We always do. But we have enough fires happening this season; we don’t need folks starting any more.”

Pictured: Grand Traverse Metro crews responding to a wildfire in June 2023.