Fire in Minnesota High-Rise Apartment Building Leaves 5 Dead, 4 Injured
A fire that spread through the fourteenth floor of a high-rise apartment in Minneapolis, Minn. early Wednesday morning has left five people dead and four others, including a firefighter, injured.
Firefighters responded to the blaze at about 4 a.m., and said in a statement issued on Wednesday morning that that they took about 30 minutes to extinguish the fire, which broke out in a building located at 630 Cedar Ave South.
It was a “very tragic night at the beginning of the holiday weekend,” said John Fruetel, chief for Minneapolis Fire in a press conference streamed on local news channel KSTP, an ABC affiliate.
Fruetel said units on the fourteenth floor were “very heavily damaged” are “probably going to be uninhabitable.” He said it appeared the fire had been “burning for a while” before firefighters arrived. Fruetel added that there had been a lot of evacuations as firefighters worked to contain flames in the 24-story apartment building.
The Minneapolis Fire department tweeted while personnel were on the scene that heavy smoke had reached the sixteenth and seventeenth floor and that one resident on the 21st floor was “refusing to evacuate.”
Heavier smoke reported on floors 16 and 17. Crews are attempting to ventilate via the roof systems. Residents confined in an apartment on the 14th floor evacuated to the 12th floor. Fire reported out on the 14th floor.
— Minneapolis Fire (@MinneapolisFire) November 27, 2019
Crews picking up a resident on the 13th floor via elevator who is unable to evacuate via the stairs. Resident on the 21st floor is refusing to evacuate. Crews going to check if safe to shelter in place.
— Minneapolis Fire (@MinneapolisFire) November 27, 2019
Four of the five deceased civilians were “found on the fourteenth floor and were pronounced dead on the scene,” Minneapolis Fire said in its statement. Another victim died in an area hospital, where he was transferred after he was found in a stairway. The victims’ identities have not yet been confirmed.
Three civilians were also taken to the hospital “for various medical concerns, in addition to a firefighter who suffered a “minor injury.”
Minneapolis Fire said the agency continues to investigate the cause of the fire.
