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The Babbitt Fire Department fought a garage fire in bitter cold temperatures Sunday night. Temperatures dropped to around 30 degrees below zero and firefighters used the Babbitt ambulance to warm up in.
The fire department was paged out at 8:52 p.m. to 22 Fern Court for a report of a structure fire. At 8:55 p.m. the parties reported flames through the roof. Arriving on scene at 8:59 p.m. firefighters found a fire in a garage not attached to the house.
The fully-involved two stall garage had motorcycles in the garage, along with a 100 lb. propane cylinder and an oxygen cylinder used for welding.
“In under a minute water was flowing and cooling the neighbor’s propane tank and the neighbor’s house. The vinyl siding was melting and the house was six feet away,” said Babbitt Fire Chief Tony Chamberlin. “The house was pretty close to the garage and the gutters melted off but there wasn’t a lot of other damage.”
The main power feed from the pole to the house burned and broke, so firefighters had to contend with a live electrical wire on the ground as well.
“And the hydrant in front of the house failed so we had to run water from the end of the block. The nut on the hydrant broke off the one by the house. Ely and Embarrass arrived but the pump on the truck from Embarrass froze when they arrived. Ely helped with providing firefighters to rotate in with our guys,” said Chamberlin.
Also on scene was the Babbitt ambulance for a recovery station for firefighters.
MinnesotaPowershowedupand hooked up the power so the house didn't freeze. The fire department was on scene for three hours.
“Most of our stuff was there until 10:10 p.m. but we kept a couple people on scene until the power company could arrive,” said Chamberlin. “Everything actually went pretty well. It was really a big save on both houses.”
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Chamberlin said firefighters were back at the hall on Monday and spent 2.5 hours reracking the hose that finally thawed.
