PLYMOUTH, Minn. — “The house is not livable right now.”
This wasn't the Halloween Morteza Ameli was expecting. He thought he would be handing out candy, but now he can't sleep in his home. Ameli said part of a tree in his yard broke off and hit an electrical line that sparked a fire.
“A lot of times when these storms come through, we get a lot of tree limbs or the weight of the snow will bring trees down or weigh down power lines and those power lines as they come down will actually short out and spark and a lot of times, they’ll cause some issue that will cause those fires,” said Plymouth Fire Chief Rodger Coppa.
Coppa said the department had a couple of mutual aid fires but nothing like this house fire.
“We had a neighbor where there was so much smoke produced that we had a neighbor that wanted to be evaluated by the ambulance on scene. She was cleared,” he said.
Ameli said his wife and daughter were home at the time it happened, but they weren’t hurt.
“The most important people in my life, they’re all Ok and that’s, I thank God for that,” Ameli said.
He said it hurts to see his home of 18 years charred.
“Everything is destroyed,” he said. “The house is not livable right now.”
Ameli had construction crews board up his house, but water was still coming in through the roof.
“Water is coming down straight, right down all the way to the basement,” Ameli said.
He was able to salvage his son’s bass and his wife’s glasses.
For a living, Ameli helps people find their dream home, and he can think about as he looks at his burned home is the amount of work he’s put into it.
“Being a realtor I, I have helped clients with similar situations, I just never had to go through it myself, but it will all set in probably tonight,” he said.
Ameli said he doesn’t have any plans to leave his neighborhood and is focused on rebuilding his home.
“I love this neighborhood,” he said.
He isn’t sure what’s next, but he’s grateful there will be no empty seats at his table.
“I guess that will be the dinner conversation tonight,” he said.