MINNEAPOLIS - A suspected arson fire overnight at a South Minneapolis apartment building sent some residents fleeing from third-story windows, including a family that lowered themselves to safety with the torn strip of a Cinderella bedsheet.
Assistant Fire Chief Cherie Penn said the fire broke out about 4 a.m. this morning in a second-floor hall in the three-story building at 3400 10th Av. S. but did not reach any apartment units.
Resident Maribel Parra said she awoke to the sound of fire alarms.
"I thought I had left something on the stove," said Parra, who fled out the front door with her husband and two children. .
The hallways were filled with smoke, however, and other residents climbed out their windows -- including Maribel's sister, Griselda, who broke her ankle when she fell while scrambling out of the third story. Others were rescued by firefighters with ladders, Penn said. There were no other injuries.
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Penn said that when the smoke detectors sounded, residents opened their doors to the hall out of curiosity.
That isn't advisable, but it's understandable "when you are caught in those situations," Penn said.
Realizing escape into the hall wasn't an option, some "chose their necessary means of evacuation" by jumping from windows before firefighters arrived.
Third-floor resident Victor Juarez said he smelled smoke, opened his door and was confronted by intense heat. Juarez said he wrapped a wet towel over his face and ran down the stairs and then outside.
He said that before firefighters arrived, a third-floor family threw a mattress out the window and were prepared to toss their three children out as well.
Juarez said he climbed up a cable and a water pipe and was able to lower the children, one of them 3 months old.
Although the cause and origin of the fire remain under investigation, authorities believe this is a case of arson, Penn said. Residents have been allowed to return to their homes.
