MINNEAPOLIS — Four Minneapolis firefighters were injured battling a house fire in northeast Minneapolis Tuesday.
Three of them received their injuries after a dramatic escape from the upper floor of the burning home. A fourth firefighter was also injured, but not from the evacuation, according to Minneapolis Fire.
Crews were called to the two-story home on the 1400 block of 19th Avenue Northeast and found flames jumping from the interior. They entered the house and began an attack when suddenly three firefighters who were battling flames upstairs were caught in what is referred to as a flashover, defined as "the near-simultaneous ignition of directly exposed combustible material in an enclosed area."
Assistant Chief Bryan Tyner says furniture in the burning area his firefighters were working in caught fire and erupted in a hot ball of flames, sending the firefighters running from the room and climbing out windows onto the roof.
At one point a Mayday call was issued when one of the firefighters could not be accounted for, but that person was soon located. All three of the firefighters who were forced to evacuate were transported to Hennepin County Medical Center, where they were treated for minor injuries. They escaped through windows with the help of a fire safety crew, which had trained for flashover situations just last year.
"It was specifically for firefighters escaping out of a building in a flashover or backdraft," Deputy Chief Kathleen Mullen said. "We've really worked hard on it and we definitely saw it kick in here, and we believe it was significant in having them escape out of the building safely."
The other injured firefighter was brought to an area hospital to be "assessed."
The fire department says three of the four have been released.
The fire itself proved stubborn, spreading and rekindling enough that a third alarm was called.
Tyner says the residence is a single-family home, and that the couple and a child who live there were not home at the time the fire began. At the moment their dog is unaccounted for.