Smoke, sirens, and confusion ripped through a Minneapolis block on Wednesday as a fire swept an apartment building and left nearly two dozen residents suddenly without a place to sleep. Neighbors described a scramble to get out, with thick smoke pushing people into stairwells and out onto balconies while firefighters moved through the building to clear units. In short video clips from the scene, people stand bundled in coats, clutching what they could grab, watching crews hunt for lingering hotspots.
FOX 9 captured the aftermath on camera, including an interview with a resident identified as Dennis Anderson, who walked through what he saw and the rescues that followed. The station’s video, posted Wednesday afternoon, shows firefighters and shaken neighbors gathered in the street after the building was cleared.
Rescues and displacement
Early clips and residents’ accounts show fire crews moving through the structure and guiding people out of their apartments and onto porches and stairwells. The video indicates that roughly two dozen people were displaced. In the immediate aftermath, details on injuries and where residents would go next were limited, and authorities had not yet released a confirmed cause of the fire at the time the footage went up.
Not an isolated problem
This was not the first time this winter that a Twin Cities apartment fire has forced multiple families from their homes. A separate blaze in south Minneapolis in early January also left about two dozen people displaced, according to CBS Minnesota. That earlier fire brought out multiple crews and left parts of the building uninhabitable while investigators worked to determine what sparked it.
In situations like these, displaced residents are typically assisted first by the American Red Cross and city services. The local Red Cross outlines shelter options, meals, and casework support for people affected by building fires, according to the American Red Cross. City officials and building managers usually assess whether units are livable and coordinate temporary housing while fire investigators look into what happened…