Portion of vacant south Minneapolis apartment building collapses in fire

Crews on Thursday morning continued putting out hot spots and flare-ups at a vacant apartment building in south Minneapolis that went up in flames overnight and partially collapsed.

Firefighters entered the boarded-up three-story Dundry House Apartments near the I-35W/I-94 interchange just before midnight to lay hoses and search for anybody who may have been inside. Several squatters ran out of the building as flames quickly spread from the third floor to other floors and into walls and the attic space, said Assistant Fire Chief Melanie Rucker.

No injuries were reported, she said.

The intense flames forced firefighters to retreat from the building in the 500 block of E. 19th Street and tackle the blaze from the outside. A portion of the roof collapsed, the Fire Department said.

Crews applied “large amounts of water through windows and onto the roof to extinguish the fire,” Rucker said.

Joseph Heili was riding his bike home after working at the Timberwolves game and saw the flames. He stopped to shoot a video.

“I was blown away by how much water was coming down the alley” near the building, he said. “They were pouring so much water on it.”

Fire Department officials said they would be on the scene for most of Thursday morning.

Xcel Energy shut off power to the building and CenterPoint Energy shut off gas to the building, the department said.

It was not immediately clear how the fire started. There was evidence that several boards covering windows on the first floor had been removed or tampered with, Rucker said.

The Fire Department has responded to several previous fires at the building, she said.