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The Morse-Fall Lake Fire Department was dispatched to a structure fire at 5:28 a.m. Monday morning on the Wolf Lake Road.
Upon arrival, the fire department found a chimney fire had spread into the ceiling and wall area behind a wood stove. Fire departments from Eagles Nest, Ely and Breitung were paged for mutual aid assistance for water supply.
Four individuals were able to evacuate from the house after flames began to be seen.
“We had four friends of ours that have been coming to fish opening weekend of trout season for 20 years. They had a fire in the fireplace and put it out at 10 p.m. and went to bed,” said owner Jay Mackie.
“And about 5:30 in the morning one fellow that was sleeping in the lower level woke up smelling smoke. He got up and woke the other guys up and got their stuff and got dressed and got out.
“It appeared something was smoldering behind the fireplace insert. They opened the main door of the house and a window to evacuate the smoke that gave the fire a big breath. It was only smoke at that time.
“We’ve had fires in the fireplace for years. I don’t know what was back there. The fireplace was raised off the floor so when my dad built that it was on concrete blocks. I don’t know what caused it unless there was a crack in the steel insert.
“They were safe and sound, nobody was hurt. The contents were a total loss. The fire department couldn’t get into the ceiling due to the metal roof. A metal roof is a good thing in most places but in a fire not so much.
“My dad built that in the late 1970s. It was my parents’ home until they died and then we used it as our guest cabin. Our kids use it all the time so I’m sure we’ll think of putting something back there.
“There was a grand piano that’s probably in the basement now. And we had just put a new propane furnace in. Nobody got hurt, that’s the main thing,” said Mackie.
The 22x36 structure cabin was a total loss. Firefighters battled temperatures of -35 degrees and were on scene for 4.5 hours.
“Thank you to St. Louis County Public Works for sanding the area,” said Morse-Fall Lake Fire Chief Ted Krueger. “We had set up a water supply at the nearby boat landing and the county sanded the road, driveways and landing road, they were fantastic.”
Morse-Fall Lake firefighters battled a house fire in Lake County on Tuesday night. The call came in as a chimney fire at around 6:10 p.m. in the 14000 block of the Mikana Road.
Krueger said the homeowners attempted to put out the fire with a fire extinguisher and then opened doors and windows to ventilate the house.
These actions led to the fire restarting and firefighters had to pull the ceiling down to extinguish the flames.
Fire officials want to remind homeowners that if you suspect a chimney fire, call 911 immediately and don’t try to ventilate your home as such actions could cause the fire to spread.
Babbitt garage fire
The Babbitt Fire Department fought a garage fire in bitter-cold temperatures Sunday night.
The 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 twostall 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 melted 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 so firefighters had to contend with a live wire as well.
“And the hydrant in front of the house failed so we had to run water from the end of the block. Ely and Embarrass arrived but the pump on the truck from Embarrass froze when they arrived. Ely helped with providing firefighters,” said Chamberlin.
Also on scene was the Babbitt ambulance for a recovery station for firefighters. Minnesota Power showed up and 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 of 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 two and a half hours reracking the hose that finally thawed.
