Cannon Falls mother and her 3 children seriously injured in apartment fire
CANNON FALLS, Minn. – Three young children are badly hurt from a fire Wednesday at a Cannon Falls apartment building.
Their mother also had to go to the hospital after she ran inside to try and rescue them.
Jeff McCormick, the Cannon Falls police chief, was one of the first on scene.
"First thing going through my mind is where are the children?" McCormick said.
McCormick says he broke out the windows with a fire extinguisher and he and a paramedic were able to find two of them. He says firefighters had to pause their efforts minutes later when the third child was found.
McCormick says the kids are in the hospital in critical condition, all of them under 8 years old. They are recovering at Hennepin Healthcare's burn unit, and all of them are in a medically induced coma.
"When we found them, and they weren't being very responsive, your heart just drops," he said. "It's not that I save lives, but it's just part of what we do. It's one of those things where it'll hit me later. Probably when I get back with my family."
Smoke and water damage from the fire has made the building temporarily unlivable, so the Red Cross is helping displaced neighbors.
Tiffany Vang, who lives next door, wasn't home when the fire started but says she was crying the whole drive back.
"I see the kids out and I have a 3-year-old, so I know how it is with kids," Vang said. "What I'm worried about is them, is the three babies. It's numbing. You don't know how to feel."
McCormick says the children's mother has a significant injury on her arm.
The Red Cross and Goodhue County Human Services are helping residents who were displaced because of the fire.
Investigators are still trying to figure out how the fire started.