2 Minneapolis firefighters hurt in East Franklin Avenue business fire
By Ashley Grams
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MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (WCCO) — The Minneapolis Fire Department says two firefighters are hospitalized with minor burns amid a blaze Sunday evening on East Franklin Avenue.
Assistant Fire Chief Melanie Rucker says her department was notified around 4 p.m. of “someone possibly starting a fire” inside a business on the corner of East Franklin and South 13th avenues, just a few blocks west of Highway 55/Hiawatha Avenue.
Rucker says crews arrived to find flames inside the building, but racks inside were impeding their movement and eventually blocked their exits, leading two firefighters to suffer burns.
“But they were able to come out on their own, so we were luckily we’re not able to have to, you know, send them in. So they’re both being treated at the hospital right now, they’re doing fine,” Rucker said. “They’re in stable condition with some minor burns, a lot of exhaustion trying to, you know, get out, but we have our masks on so there shouldn’t have been any smoke inhalation or anything like that.”
Rucker says it led to a mayday call for a three-alarm fire, with 50 to 60 firefighters dispatched to scene to rotate in and out.
“Half of the building, the 1300 building roof, has collapsed. We have had several of the large air conditioning units fall through the roof,” Rucker said. “At some point, firefighters were on the roof when one of the air conditioners did fall through, and they were able to exit the roof, but they weren’t near that collapse.”
Rucker says crews are focused on keeping the blaze from spreading to neighboring businesses.
“Usually the older brick buildings do have a fire stop, but they have a common basement,” Rucker said. “A lot of water damage and smoke damage that we are really quite concerned about.”
LaSasha McGinnis works at the adjoining building, the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, which she says houses “30 years of Dakota curriculum and Ojibwe curriculum.”
“The Fond du Lac Chippewa Tribe, the Fond du Lac Urban Tribe is also housed in this building, which she has things that you can’t replace,” McGinnis said. “There’s unreplaceable things in this building from water damage, smoke damage. It’s actually really sad to see this here.”
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