Fire in Fergus Falls Claims One Life
by Vanessa Peng, KVRR Reporter
June 27, 2012
"It's too much."
Jenni Bondal is seeing her apartment unit for the first time since a Tuesday night fire engulfed the place she calls home.
"When I went back through it was covered in smoke damage, my walls are black, everything is covered in soot, " said Bondal.
Firefighters were called to the Sunrise Apartments in Fergus Falls, Minnesota around 9:30 last night.
"Flames coming out the living room window and going up into the second floor of the building and also into the roof area, " said Fergus Falls Fire Chief Mark Hovland.
Those inside say it was instant chaos.
"The smoke, he opened the hallway and the smoke came barreling through and I was just so scared for my family to feel so helpless, like you can't do anything, " said Rachel Munoz, who lives at the apartment complex.
"Smoke was rolling from my apartment, the downstairs windows were busted out. It was just a lot of chaos, " said Brandon Brown, who lives in the apartment directly above the one where it all started.
Sadly one person lost their life in the fire.
Neighbors say the victim was an elderly woman who used a wheelchair.
They say she had oxygen tanks for medical purposes in her apartment.
Fire leaders say at least two of those tanks exploded.
"I heard another boom and oxygen tanks, she has, I guess, three or four of them in there and as far as I know they were starting to go off so the police officers were pulling us back, " said Kelly Simon, who lives in the neighborhood, but not in the apartment complex.
The cause of the fire is not officially known, but neighbors say they suspect the fire started when the elderly woman smoked a cigarette near one of the tanks, something they have seen her do before.
Once the fire started, flames grew quickly.
In fact, the smoke and flames trapped people upstairs, forcing a man to jump out of a second-story window.
"He kind of hung from the window and just let go. We caught him. He didn't fall, he kind of landed on feet, after that he was so shaken, " said Simon.
And injured, but otherwise okay.
All other residents made it out unscathed and are counting their blessings, having survived a dangerous situation that could have had a far worse outcome.
" I could have been burying three of my children this morning from the looks of everything, they don't have anything, but they have their lives, " said Keshia Barnes Brown, a fire victim.
All 25–units have been evacuated.
The Salvation Army is assisting fire victims.
In fact, the smoke and flames trapped people upstairs, forcing a man to jump out of a second-story window.
"He kind of hung from the window and just let go. We caught him. He didn't fall, he kind of landed on feet, after that he was so shaken, " said Simon.
And injured, but otherwise okay.
All other residents made it out unscathed and are counting their blessings, having survived a dangerous situation that could have had a far worse outcome.
" I could have been burying three of my children this morning from the looks of everything, they don't have anything, but they have their lives, " said Keshia Barnes Brown, a fire victim.
All 25–units have been evacuated.
The Salvation Army is assisting fire victims.
