Man arrested after domestic violence call leads to house fire in Grand Forks

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (KVRR) – Grand Forks police responded to a domestic violence call to this home on 4th Ave. S that escalated into a house fire.

“Officers noticed a couple of things right away. One that the structure looked like it was on fire, there was smoke coming from the second floor. They also saw a male kind of hanging partially out of the window.”

According to police, the suspect, James Laducer was inside the residence when an altercation occurred between him and the victim. He inflicted serious injuries on the victim before he began lighting objects inside the home on fire.

“Immediately upon them realizing ‘Hey there’s smoke coming from this house, that’s not a normal thing.’ So that call would have been immediately from the officers through dispatch, who in turn would have notified members of the fire department to have them respond. ”

The victim and two children were already outside the home when officers arrived on the scene.

Officers initially struggled to get Laducer out of the home, as he hung out of the second floor window.

“He did not want to follow instructions. Officers were able to make their way up to the house to the window, grab a hold of him, and get him out. Once they got him out he actually started fighting with officers, but there were multiple officers on the scene at that point and they were able to quickly secure him. ”

Lieutenant Stein says that officers can often encounter unexpected obstacles when they arrive on the scene and have to adjust on the fly.

“Life preservation is one of the first things that officers on the scene are attempting to deal with. Make sure everybody’s out, make sure everybody’s safe and then deal with other parts of that investigation as they come up.”

Laducer was arrested and charged with three counts of endangerment by fire, preventing arrest and aggravated domestic assault. He is currently in the Grand Forks County Correctional Center.