Residents displaced following Minneapolis apartment fire

Residents of a Minneapolis apartment building have been displaced following a fire Thursday morning.

According to the Minneapolis Fire Department, the fire occurred in an apartment building on 1000 block of Newton Avenue North.

Fire officials said no one was injured during the fire.

The Red Cross said it is helping the 11 adults and 21 children that have been displaced by the fire.

Mohamed Ousman told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS his sister was living on the second floor and showed the extensive damage.

“There’s no place to come back to,” he said. “It’s very sad.”

Two alarm fire on 1000 block of Newton Ave N. No injuries. 9 people are displaced of which 7 are younger children. #KSTP pic.twitter.com/3zKNOBhb99

— Chris Knoll (@5Aftermidnite) April 2, 2020

Firefighters tore into the ceiling to get to the flames as the fire spread from the back of the building to the front.

“Being driven by the wind out here,” said Deputy Fire Chief Kathleen Mullen. “So we’ve had to open up the roof from up above and down below.”

She told reporters that the fire spread along the roofline, above the second-floor ceiling.

“The bulk of the fire was above the smoke detectors so the residents in that rear unit, their detectors sounded as they should have,” said Mullen. “But for the rest of the unit, the fire was up above them, up above in the ceiling.”

According to Mullen, most of the residents had already evacuated when firefighters arrived around 1:30 a.m.

Ousman said the fire started in the view of neighbors who live on the other side of the alley.

“They noticed and knocked on the door,” said Ousman. “He said ‘Fire, fire, fire.'”

Ousman told KSTP that’s what alerted the families inside that they needed to get out. They all made it to safety.

“The neighbors were heroes last night,” he said.

According to fire officials, the building has not been condemned. It’s not clear, however, if and when they’ll be able to move back inside.

Ousman and another resident both told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that the Red Cross brought buses to the neighborhood on Thursday morning to give the residents a temporary place to stay.

They said some are now staying with family and friends, while others are at a shelter.

A Red Cross spokesperson said they are providing housing assistance for the families affected.

“They are facing a hard life, the family, because they have no house at this time and they are waiting for some support for the government or some other organization,” said Ousman.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.