Hundreds without shelter after Minneapolis apartment fire
MINNEAPOLIS — A fastmoving fire broke out early Wednesday in downtown Minneapolis’ Francis Drake Hotel, displacing more than 200 residents from an aging, onetime opulent apartment building that now serves mostly as temporary housing for homeless people.
At least two people were hospitalized with unspecified but noncritical injuries, fire officials said. Several others were treated at the scene.
Firefighters responded to the call at about 3 a.m. and began evacuating residents from the building near South 5th Avenue and 10th Street. The blaze started in the rear of the second floor, then climbed to the top floor of the threestory building before spreading to the attic and through the roof, officials said.
The building, which serves as temporary housing when Hennepin County’s primary homeless shelters are full, can accommodate as many as 250 people, but authorities said it wasn’t immediately clear how many were inside when the blaze broke out.
Built in 1926 as a luxury hotel, the Drake has 146 rooms. Like other buildings of its size and age, it is not required to have sprinklers.
By 5 a.m., the fire had gone to four alarms. Smoke was substantial, engulfing the area around the building and making it difficult to breathe. High humidity and above-freezing temperatures already had enveloped much of downtown in an eerie fog.
The blaze, whose cause remains under investigation, came scarcely a month after the Thanksgiving week fire at a Minneapolis Public Housing Authority high-rise in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood that killed five people, injured four and displaced dozens.
As hundreds of indigent residents — some of whom were able to collect just a few of their possessions before fleeing — sought new shelter and city officials and complete strangers marshaled to help them, Mayor Jacob Frey stood outside the Drake, struggling to contain his emotions.
“These are real people that need a roof over their head, who need help,” he said. “And of all the buildings in the entire city, this is the one that’s got to go up in flames right now.
“The only word that truly comes to mind is heartbreaking,” Mr. Frey said, standing alongside Minneapolis Fire Chief John Fruetel. “These are people’s lives. This is their home. They’re concerned about everything from a wallet or a phone so they can get in touch with a loved one on Christmas, to where is their baby going to get formula.”
Chief Fruetel said firefighters tried to contain the blaze to the eastern half of the structure where it began, but that once the flames reached the attic, they spread throughout the entire building. “We worked tirelessly … trying to save what we could of the belongings of these folks who are so tragically affected,” he said.
As firefighters continued to douse the flames, the stream of unsolicited donations picked up. People carried bags of clothing, diapers and sanitary products.
Resident Lesley Evans, 20, said she and her three children, ages 1, 2 and 5, were asleep in their second-floor room facing the courtyard in the U-shaped shelter when she heard screaming and someone yelling, “Fire!”
She looked out the window and saw flames, so she called 911. She touched the door to her apartment with the back of her hand, opened it and quickly closed it. “It was too smoky for me and the kids to get out,” she said.
Ms. Evans stayed on the phone with the 911 operator, who had her grab a towel, wet it and go into a closet.
“I was trying to stay positive, telling my son, ‘No, we’re not going to die,’” she said.
She texted her mom, who lives in Brooklyn Center, “I texted her, ‘I can’t breathe. I’m trapped in a room. There’s a fire,’” Ms. Evans said.
Ms. Evans said she was in the room with her children for 30 minutes before she heard the firefighters pound down her door.
They got outside, Ms. Evans wearing only a Tshirt, boots and underwear. She said her 5-year-old son was in his boxer shorts, a coat and boots. Her 1-yearold wore only a diaper.
Other residents from the shelter gave her boots and a coat.
“We lost everything. My kids have no clothes,” she said.