Two people are dead and two firefighters were injured after an early Saturday morning fire became the third fatal blaze to hit the same Duluth apartment building in as many years.
Two dead in third fatal fire at same Duluth apartment building since 2020
Two firefighters were also injured; multiple cats dead.
April 23, 2023 at 2:07AM
Duluth Deputy Fire Chief Mike Consie said firefighters responded to reports of a fire at the two-story, eight-unit apartment complex at 631 E. 3rd St., just after 6 a.m., Saturday and arrived to see smoke and quickly advancing fire inside the building.
One second-story occupant later died at a hospital after being removed from a window and given life-saving measures, according to the Duluth Fire Department. A second victim, in the same apartment, was later found dead after firefighters had to suspend rescue efforts when the room "flashed over," according to an update provided Saturday evening.
Firefighters were able to rescue other tenants, while others escaped on their own. Consie said several cats were rescued and an unknown number of others perished in the fire.
Officials have yet to identify the person who died. Consie said that two firefighters sustained burns while trying to rescue residents. Those firefighters were treated at urgent care and have been released.
The state fire marshal is also investigating the fire because it involved a fatality.
The fire department did not have a total number of people displaced by the fire as of Saturday late afternoon.
Deputy Chief John Otis said the structure previously had fatal fires in August 2020 and April 2021, and both were determined to be accidental. The cause of Saturday's fire is still being investigated.
Otis confirmed that the building was licensed as an apartment building and was due for a triannual inspection in August, but it had no open code violations at the time of the most recent fire.
The two preceding fatal fires were contained in small areas within the solid brick structure, but Otis said Saturday's fire would likely require the building to be demolished because it destroyed more than half of the building's roof.
Otis said that condemnation cases were filed related to both previous fatal fires but lifted after the building was brought back into compliance.
The proposal suggests removing the 20-year protection on the Superior National Forest that President Joe Biden’s administration had ordered in 2023.
