2 children, 2 adults taken to hospital after fire in Minneapolis
MINNEAPOLIS — Two children and two adults were hospitalized Saturday night after a fire broke out at an apartment building in Minneapolis.
The Minneapolis Fire Department said it responded to an apartment building at 27th and Stevens avenues south just after 10:30 p.m., where crews found a fire on the second floor.
Crews immediately set to work to extinguish the flames and managed to put out the fire just after 11 p.m.
The four people hospitalized were being examined for smoke inhalation and singe burns to their hair, the fire department said.
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Residents reported hearing some type of small explosion before the fire started.
"I was beside because my bedroom is beside his bedroom and I saw the explosion, it was scary. And then I see a lot of fire coming out of the window and then everybody got out," resident Jose Pinto said.
Pinto says before the fire, something was thrown through the apartment's window — maybe a rock.
"Once they broke the window, they threw a bomb in there," Pinto said. "I asked the neighbor what happened he said you saw the bomb come into his bedroom and it exploded literally in front of him. And there were kids in there."
A woman next door to where the fire happened says it felt like an earthquake.
The fire department says it is aware of the claims of an explosion and it is investigating.
"Everybody's asking why but it happened before. The apartment 102, I believe, they had the same thing," Pinto said. "But on that side, it did not explode before. So it's not the first time it happened here. It's the second time."
The Red Cross was also called to help three adults and one child who lived in the unit above the one that caught fire.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
