By Logan Wells, News Director | Logan@kymnradio.net
Two weeks ago, there was a house fire at Juniper Avenue in Northfield. Last week, Northfield Fire Chief Tom Nelson provided some comments and a review of the situation.
Nelson stated that the fire started in the garage of the home and a neighbor’s ring camera was able to show them how the fire spread from the garage to the house:
“Build in the garage and then there was enough of a wind that it kind of worked its way out the side of the house, got into the siding, got in and got up into the attic.” – Fire Chief Tom Nelson on the KYMN Morning Show
The call, which was reported at approximately 3:30pm caused a unique set of problems as the fire was near Greenvale Park Elementary, and equipment had to be extra careful around students leaving school. Nelson stated that at the time of the fire two residents were home, but that everyone including the families pets safely got out of the house.
Northfield Fire’s response to the call was praised by Nelson, with firefighters on scene in the first 5 minutes. Despite a high turnout from Northfield firefighters, who are not full-time but instead on call, he still called for Mutual Aid from Fairabault right away to provide assistance and manpower:
“It’s one of those things John Mihalchik used to always say: what you do in the first 5 minutes is going to dictate what you’re going to do for the next 5 hours.” – Fire Chief Tom Nelson on the KYMN Morning Show
Now the fire moves to the investigation stage, and Nelson works with investigators from the State’s Fire Marshal’s Office.
“And then when there’s significant damage, it’s really hard to say, oh, it was that thing right there. But part of the investigation is interviewing, you know, the mom, the son, and what was interesting, too, is the homeowner. Had, Levi said, do you have any pictures of the garage he was? Oh, yeah, I do. And he showed us a picture so we could. On the wall where the fire originated, there’s a fridge.” – Fire Chief Tom Nelson on the KYMN Morning Show
Nelson indicated that the refrigerator was one of the leading ideas for the cause, but noted that the investigation is still ongoing.
Nelson stated that after the fire the Red Cross helped the family find a new place to stay in town. A GoFundMe has been setup for the family: https://www.gofundme.com/f/aid-for-jessica-and-nate-after-fire-loss
You can hear the full conversation with Nelson about the fire here:
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