DETROIT LAKES, Minn. - It appears a fiery mop is to blame for a fire that broke out at a Detroit Lakes house around 8 a.m. Wednesday morning, according to Detroit Lakes Fire Chief Scott Flynn.
Detroit Lakes woman Rachel Gray and two of her children, including a 2- month-old baby, were home at the time but escaped without injury to a neighbor’s house.
“She smelled smoke, went downstairs, and there were flames taller than her,” said neighbor Rebecca Talbert, whose husband is also a firefighter. “So she grabbed the baby and her 3-year-old and rushed over here to let me know.”
Talbert says once they had the children and dogs safely in her house, they grabbed a fire extinguisher and went back over to the house, but smoke was thick, she said, so Talbert just grabbed the kids’ coats by the door and left.
Emergency and fire crews were quickly on the scene, and according to Flynn, the culprit appeared to be a mop in the basement.
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“If it had some chemical or something on it, and it had some kind of reaction. It could have dried out and combusted,” said Flynn, who says there was only very minor fire damage but extensive smoke damage.
“It was nothing too bad; they (the family) should be able to get back in there shortly,” said Flynn.
