TOWN OF EISENSTEIN - A wildfire in the Park Falls area destroys over 100 acres of the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest.

911 calls came in around 3 p.m. this afternoon about a wildfire near Highway 182 just east of Park Falls.

Officials are calling this the "Blockhouse Fire" because it started near Block House Lake.

US Forestry Deparment Incident Commander Mark Flunker says as of 8:00 Wednesday evening the fire is about 50 percent contained.

At least 10 different agencies responded to the fire---including four area fire departments, the State Patrol, the Price County Sheriffs Department, the Park Falls Police Department, the DNR and the US Forestry Department.

Flunker says there are at least 75 to 100 people helping to fight the fire.

He says in unconfirmed reports--three structures were damaged from the fire.

Two US Forestry Department airplanes from Minnesota were called in to fight the fire from the sky--along with a helicopter brought in from Rhinelander.

One small plane directed the other aircrafts where to go--while the other two dropped water onto the fire.

Along with the air attack--Flunker says bulldozers were used to contain the fire.

He says the the high wind speeds today made fighting the fire very difficult.

Flunker tells Newswatch 12, "We've had wind speeds up to 40-45 miles an hour, that's been our biggest challenge. Everybody's been safe out here, that's the best thing about it."

Several people from the Park Falls area contacted Newswatch 12 about the fire. One witness Benjamin Fox says, "The wind was whipping really hard across the road and there were just sticks and stuff all over the road from just blowing all day. You couldn't smell any of the smoke or anything but the wind was blowing very hard away from where we were. But if you look up into the sky could just see this thick, dark haze, you could actually see it from town which was eight miles away. When we got closer you could look into the woods and see flames along the ground but the fire had mostly moved away from that point."

Flunker says it will take a number of days until they have complete control of the fire.
He says there will be a few crews on scene overnight to make sure the fire doesn't get out of control again. Firefighters will be back on scene early Thursday morning to continue putting out the fire and begin clean up efforts.
Flunker says the cause of the fire is currently under investigation.