Firefighters in Minneapolis were busy in the extremely cold conditions overnight, responding to three house fires within about nine hours from Monday night to Tuesday morning.

No one was hurt, and right now officials do not believe the fires are related.

But working in extreme cold like this can be challenging — even risky — for firefighters.  

An early-morning house fire on Fourth Street North in Minneapolis was case in point. Firefighters battled not only flames, but frozen turnout gear and equipment.

“The hardest thing is definitely the ice. Ice on the driveway, on the patios, in the house,” said State Fire Marshal Daniel Krier.

Krier says these challenges are one of the reasons firefighters around the state spend hours training in cold conditions every year.

“No one wants to do a training in negative 20 below zero, but that’s how you identify how your body will react, how your gear will react, what your gear is like when it’s frozen,” he said.