Star Tribune
Tiny amount of propane gas enough to ignite blast in near Bagley that critically burned man, his 5 boys
A “residual” amount of propane gas in a tank was all that was needed for a flicker from a cigarette lighter to ignite an explosion and fire that critically burned a man and his children in a northwestern Minnesota storage unit, state officials said Friday.
Emergency responders arrived to find the man and children ages 6 to 14 with burns, the Sheriff’s Office said. The boys’ sister said the brothers were with their father at the time of the incident.
The State Fire Marshal said in an update Friday that the six victims remain in critical but stable condition in HCMC in Minneapolis.
Kyra Frank identified the five children to the Star Tribune by their first names as her brothers, according to an online fundraising page that she started to help the family with expenses related to the explosion. They are Keegan, 6; Kaeto, 8; Braedynn, 10; Tannen, 12; and Zander, 14. She said their father, 55-year-old Randy Ritchie, was the man with them at the time.
State fire investigators determined that a 100-pound propane cylinder, “believed to be empty, contained enough residual gas to fill the storage container to dangerous levels,” a statement from the State Fire Marshal read.
Ritchie and his children entered the storage unit to retrieve toys, the statement continued. Unaware of the danger, the children entered first and did not recognize the distinct odor of mercaptan, the additive that gives propane its telltale “gas” smell. Moments later, a cigarette lighter’s sparked set off the explosion.
“This family faces a long road to recovery, but they are bravely sharing their story so that nobody else experiences such a devastating accident,” the statement quoted State Fire Marshal Dan Krier as saying. “We hope this family’s tragedy serves as a reminder to take precautions when storing and handling propane.”
The Depot in Hopkins reopened this week, bringing a trailside snack shop, youth hangout space and events venue back to Excelsior Boulevard.
“It was emotional,” said Roxie Wolfe, rental and events manager for the Hopkins Center for the Arts, which is managing the building. “There was a lot of reminiscing and then happiness about the fact it reopened.”
The building operated for about 25 years as a coffee house, host for open mic nights and youth gathering space before officials last year shut it down amid financial challenges. It got a sprucing up before reopening, including fresh coats of paint.
Nick Bishop, Hopkins’ finance director, said the first phase of the remodeling project cost about $50,000, money the city covered using American Rescue Plan grants and the city’s capital improvement fund. He said Hopkins continues to work with other partners — including the city of Minnetonka, Hopkins School District and Three Rivers Park District — to contribute to the shop’s operations.
“I’m glad that people gave us the patience and trusted that we could bring this back and also keep the youth focus,” Bishop said. “It’s the most important part and it’s the whole reason we do it.”
The brick building, an old railroad stop, sits near Highway 169, along the intersection of multiple bike paths, including the Cedar Lake and Minnesota River Bluffs LRT regional trails.
The Depot, a popular spot for youth and a trailhead stopping place, reopened this week in Hopkins, Minn. (Glen Stubbe/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
The shop menu is a little different. Instead of leaning into lattes, they’re now focused on drip coffee, tea and hot chocolate. They also offer healthier snacks, such as trail mixes. They don’t take cash, only cards. Restrooms are open to the public, and the whole building is dog friendly.
The shop will be open from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays. The space will once again serve as a meeting place for the city’s youth advisory board and can also be rented during additional hours for birthday parties, meetings, lectures and other events.
Rucker said most of the damage from the fire was to the television and “other ordinary combustibles adjacent to the television.”
The fire produced a large amount of smoke, and there was soot on surfaces throughout the house, she said.
Rucker said there have been four fire-related fatalities in the city so far this year.
Cecil was an avid gardener who “adored her pets, especially her dog Maggie,” the obituary read.
Before retiring, she worked for the Internal Revenue Service and Lutheran Social Service, the obituary continued.
Star Tribune
Vile texts received by Black Minnesotans after the election reveal a bolder brand of racism
The message came from a 612 area phone number that no longer works. Burks, director of operations at Rochester Area Economic Development Inc., initially assumed she was targeted because she had just run for public office as a Black woman. She lost her bid Tuesday to become an Olmsted County commissioner. But after she shared the text on social media, others piped in with similar stories. She learned that the racist hoax appeared to be vast and coordinated, directed also at Black people in New York, Alabama, California, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.
“My other daughter, who is 11, she saw this all across TikTok. She asked me, ‘What’s a plantation?’” Burks said. “She knows about slavery. I had to explain to her what a plantation was. I had to explain that no one was going to take me, and that we’re OK. I told her it sounds like a joke, but it’s not funny at all.”
It was already a brutal week. She was saddened to see that voters chose to give a second term to a man who called Kamala Harris, the first woman of color to run for president on a major-party ticket, “lazy,” “a stupid person,” “slow,” “having low IQ,” and suggesting she was on drugs. These are all tropes used to denigrate Black people, and Burks told me she identifies with others underestimating her abilities because of her race and gender. (”I don’t parade my titles,” she says, even though she earned her MBA and is in the final stages of completing her doctorate degree.)
After receiving the text, one of the first people Burks called was her friend, Walé Elegbede, president of the Rochester branch of the NAACP. Like Burks, he fears that Trump’s win is encouraging other Americans to show their racism more freely.
“I suspect some groups will be emboldened to think this is carte-blanche to spew hate,” Elegbede said. “Now is going to be the time to protect vulnerable communities, to protect Black communities, because they are going to be the ones hit by this.”
Were these texts part of a nefarious campaign by a foreign entity to make us in America more fearful of each other than we already are? That could very well be. But Elegbede says we must not ignore the hate in our own backyards. Just this year, a racial slur was spotted on a pedestrian bridge in Rochester. Authorities later identified four teens as suspects in their investigation.
