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.”
Star Tribune
St. Paul residents demand change, action at Midway crime forum, as they say they feel far less safe
“Several property managers have told me they have lost several renters due to the fear they have from these parties,” Lewis’ report read. “Business owners are afraid for their employees, residents are afraid for their children, and multiple people in the area [are] victimized on a regular basis … In 23 years of working in this city I have never witnessed the amount of unsheltered persons in the Western district, mainly up and down Snelling Avenue, but now every morning up and down Snelling there is someone sleeping in almost every business entryway. They are all waiting for the activity to begin at Kimball Court and spend their entire day hovering around it.”
Many voiced similar concerns regarding Kimball Court Thursday, but St. Paul Council President Mitra Jalali countered that many factors affecting crime around the apartments was out of Beacon Interfaith’s control. Expanding their building, she continued, could help.
“We’re having a lot of concurrent challenges in our community. We’re having economic pressures … we’re having the cheapest of fentanyl being dumped into our streets that we’re in a battle against,” Jalali said. “Part of why there’s things happening outside is there aren’t enough rooms here. This renovation and expansion actually helps those people begin to transition from outside to inside.”
Construction for that expansion is expected to start this December, but it’s not the only safety solution in the works.
St. Paul police announced plans to increase patrols and enforcement in the area soon, mirroring a focused enforcement detail that officers used this September. Western District Chief Stacy Murphy said that September detail, which stretched between Western and Snelling avenues along University Avenue, netted 46 arrests and two handguns.
Recent crime data from the area suggest that many crime metrics amid work to improve safety. Arrests for burglary, theft, assault, discharging firearms and stealing vehicles decreased this year compared to 2024 according to a Star Tribune analysis of St. Paul police data.
In his first official appearance since his ticket lost the lection, Gov. Tim Walz during a speech in Minnesota on Friday acknowledged the difficulty of the moment, vowed to keep fighting and said he would seek common ground across different viewpoints.
“It’s hard to lose,” Walz said. “It’s hard to understand how so many of our fellow citizens — people Democrats have long fought to help — wound up choosing the path they did. And it’s hard to reckon with what that path looks like over the next four years.”
Walz didn’t detail his own future political plans, but said that as long as he’s governor, Minnesota will protect a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions, protect unions, welcome immigrants, fight climate change, protect children from being shot at schools, respect democracy and not demonize those who disagree.
Walz, who has two years remaining in his second term as governor, gave the speech to friends, family and partisan supporters in the auditorium at Eagan High School, an event arranged in the past 48 hours. As the running mate to Vice President Kamala Harris, Walz had hoped to be packing for Washington, D.C., not giving a consolation speech.
“If you’re feeling deflated and discouraged today, I want you to know that I get it,” he said.
The governor urged everyone to take some time and take care of themselves, their loved ones and communities. “There are a million ways to make a difference; get back in the fight when you’re ready,” he said.
Despite the loss, Walz said his travels in the past three months left him more inspired than ever about what’s possible in America. He spoke of new friends. “I ate way too much local food,” Walz said with a laugh, then took a swipe at his Republican counterpart. “But I can order donuts, people.”
Everyone he met, Walz said, wants the same basic things. “And when I say basic things, I mean things like meaningful work, safe neighborhoods, good schools, affordable health care,” Walz said, adding that they also want opportunity, security and freedom.
During his tenure, the chamber orchestra launched a free online concert library, offering children and students free tickets and creating a rainy day fund. That fund, along with private donations and federal support, helped the SPCO continue to pay its staff and musicians even after COVID-19 shuttered stages.
“It was really becoming clear in the spring of 2020 that we were in for a long time period of not doing concerts, and it was going to be turbulent and challenging,” Limbacher said. “We made a commitment to maintain compensation for staff and the orchestra.
“We all feel really good about that.”
It was Limbacher’s planning “that brought the SPCO through the pandemic in better financial shape than most orchestras in the country and has put us in a strong position to deal with the hard issues now facing the arts community,” said Deborah Palmer, chair of the SPCO board of directors, in a statement.
