Roseville Fire Department: Apartment Fire Under Investigation

The Roseville Fire Department said today that its investigation continues into a fire Tuesday evening at 2825 Pascal St N.,  home of the Centennial Commons apartment complex.

The Roseville FD has estimated the initial damage at the apartmnt buildling at ent loss at about $1.3 million.

"We will not be releasing any details regarding this investigation at this time," said Neil Sjosrtrom, a fire department spokesman.  "As soon as details are made available (we) will provide them in future updates from the fire department."

 The department issued the following statement Wednesday morning:

Roseville firefighters responded to a multi-alarm apartment fire around 7:45PM Tuesday evening.  As firefighters arrived they found a multi-story apartment building with a heavy amount of black smoking coming from the rear of the building.  Firefighters were immediately faced with a difficult incident as residents had begun self-rescuing from the structure by jumping from the windows of the apartment.

As first arriving Lieutenant Jim Chandler was beginning the process of assigning his firefighters,he came face to face with a resident of a second-floor apartment who was preparing to jump from the window.  Firefighters were able to quickly provide a ladder to rescue the occupant while crews began their initial entrance to the second floor where the fire was reported.

Lietuenant Alex Crofford was responsible for the initial crew who was assigned to enter the apartment where the fire was now extending out the window of the apartment and to the units and roof above.  Zero visibility and extreme heat were an immediate challenge according to Crofford as his crew was being pushed back by the extreme heat. 

As the crew on the second floor continued to work towards the fire unit,they were met by a single bedroom apartment that was fully engulfed by fire (the room had completed a flashover prior to crews entering the unit).  Crews began their attack on the fire and were successful in keeping the fire from extending to other units in the apartment complex. 

Firefighters were later able to locate a small amount of fire that had extended past the third floor unit and into the roof space, this fire was contained quickly.

As Roseville Firefighters continued to arrive on scene additional mutual aid was called in to assist due to the large scale of this incident. Firefighters from Lake Johanna, Little Canada, New Brighton, St. Anthony, and Maplewood fire departments all responded to assist at the scene. 

Crews were assigned numerous tasks including: Search and Rescue of all three apartment floors, roof ventilation, fire extension operations, ventilation, and standby.  Firefighters remained on scene well over four and a half hoursto to complete extinguishment and cleanup. 

Due to the extensive damage from the fire all 24 units of the building have been deemed uninhabitable until further inspections can be completed. Initial loss estimates are at the $1.3 million dollar range.  The cause of the fire remains under investigation at this time.

Roseville Fire Department was assisted on-scene by the following agencies:

Roseville Police, Allina Medical Transportation, Lake Johanna Fire Department, New Brighton Fire Department, St. Anthony Fire Department, Little Canada Fire Department, Maplewood Fire Department, Salvation Army, Red Cross, Metro Transit, Xcel Energy and Gas and Ramsey County Sheriff.