Passerby, park maintenance employees rescue 3 from Golden Valley fire

Three people were rescued from a fire in Golden Valley Wednesday morning.

According to the city of Golden Valley, firefighters were called to the 7600 block of Harold Avenue at 8:37 a.m. on reports of a fire at a townhome.

When fire crews arrived, they found two homes heavily involved in the fire completely destroyed and a neighboring home partially damaged.

The city said three people who were in the home were rescued by a passerby and two city park maintenance employees who were working in the nearby Brookview Park when the fire started.

"This was a very fast-moving fire," Golden Valley Fire Chief John Crelly said. "If these people hadn’t been close by, there may have been fatalities."

Seven other fire departments also responded to help battle the two-alarm fire, including crews from St. Louis Park, West Metro Fire, Plymouth, Hopkins, Robbinsdale, Minnetonka and Eden Prairie.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.