Crews Fight 2-Alarm Apartment Fire In Minneapolis

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Crews battled a two-alarm fire Friday afternoon in a three-unit residence in south Minneapolis.

Firefighters were called to a residence on the 2000 block of 5th Avenue South near Franklin Avenue at about 1 p.m. Crews arrived and rescued three people from the inside the building. They then concentrated on the second and third floors of the building, which is where the fire is believed to have originated.

At one point, a flashover occurred, which forced two firefighters to bail out of a second story window and evacuate.

"Where fire and gases combine and take over the room, crews got out the windows," Chief Todd White said. "It's a situational-awareness deal, and we always work on evacuating and having ways out of a building and out of a situation that you cannot handle."

Crews then battled the house fire from the outside and put it out about an hour later.

The fire department says no one was injured, and as many as eight residents are now displaced. The American Red Cross says volunteers are helping four of those residents, two of whom are children.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.