5 dead, 3 hurt in ‘devastating’ Minneapolis high-rise fire
MINNEAPOLIS — Five people died and three were injured when a fire broke out on the 14th floor of a public housing high-rise in a heavily immigrant neighbourhood of Minneapolis early Wednesday.
While the cause of the blaze was still under investigation, Fire Chief John Fruetel told reporters that investigators believe the fire was an accident, but he didn’t explain why. The building is in part of Minneapolis known as Little Mogadishu for the many Somali immigrants who have settled there.
Fruetel said the fire had been burning for a while and had blown out windows by the time firefighters arrived. A fire alarm was sounding throughout the building, and from a distance, flames could be seen extending 10 to 15 feet (3 to 4.5 metres) from windows on the 14th floor.
With those open windows and winds whipping in from an overnight wintry storm, the scene was “an extreme environment of heat and wind-driven fire,” he said.