Star Tribune
Two dead in third fatal fire at same Duluth apartment building since 2020
Two people are dead and two firefighters were injured after an early Saturday morning fire became the third fatal blaze to hit the same Duluth apartment building in as many years.
Duluth Deputy Fire Chief Mike Consie said firefighters responded to reports of a fire at the two-story, eight-unit apartment complex at 631 E. 3rd St., just after 6 a.m., Saturday and arrived to see smoke and quickly advancing fire inside the building.
One second-story occupant later died at a hospital after being removed from a window and given life-saving measures, according to the Duluth Fire Department. A second victim, in the same apartment, was later found dead after firefighters had to suspend rescue efforts when the room “flashed over,” according to an update provided Saturday evening.
Firefighters were able to rescue other tenants, while others escaped on their own. Consie said several cats were rescued and an unknown number of others perished in the fire.
Officials have yet to identify the person who died. Consie said that two firefighters sustained burns while trying to rescue residents. Those firefighters were treated at urgent care and have been released.
The state fire marshal is also investigating the fire because it involved a fatality.
The fire department did not have a total number of people displaced by the fire as of Saturday late afternoon.
Deputy Chief John Otis said the structure previously had fatal fires in August 2020 and April 2021, and both were determined to be accidental. The cause of Saturday’s fire is still being investigated.
Otis confirmed that the building was licensed as an apartment building and was due for a triannual inspection in August, but it had no open code violations at the time of the most recent fire.
The two preceding fatal fires were contained in small areas within the solid brick structure, but Otis said Saturday’s fire would likely require the building to be demolished because it destroyed more than half of the building’s roof.
Otis said that condemnation cases were filed related to both previous fatal fires but lifted after the building was brought back into compliance.
St. Louis Park will soon require landlords to give renters more notice before they file for evictions over late payments.
The city currently requires landlords to give tenants notice seven days before they file for eviction. Starting in November, landlords will have to give 30 days notice and use a form prepared by the city.
“This is a tough ordinance,” Council Member Lynette Dumalag, the only person to vote against the change, said during a meeting this week. “At least for me, personally, I felt that it pit those that care about affordable housing against one another.”
In public hearings and other forums, city leaders heard from renters who said the current requirements didn’t give them enough time to scrape together payments if they face a sudden hardship, such as losing a job. They also heard from at least one landlord who said he might have to increase deposits because he already struggles to make ends meet when renters fall behind on payments.
The change passed 4 to 1. Council Member Tim Brausen and Mayor Nadia Mohamed were absent.
PARK RAPIDS, Minn. — Ryan Leckner has resigned as Mayor of Park Rapids and the city council has officially declared a vacancy.
City Administrator Angel Weasner said councilmembers will hold a workshop on Sept. 24 to determine how to proceed. They can fill the vacancy by appointment or hold a special election, which Leckner said seems unlikely given that the November general election is just around the corner.
Until then, Leckner said “we’re thinking that we’ll just be able to get by with just one less council member.”
He added that Councilmember Liz Stone would likely serve as acting mayor until voters hit the polls.
Former Park Rapids Mayor Pat Mikesh is running uncontested for Leckner’s now-vacant seat.
In 2018, Mikesh stepped down a month before the election and Leckner successfully ran as a write-in candidate.
Leckner first joined the council in 2015 and is ending his third, two-year term as mayor early because his family built a home outside city limits. Construction of the home in Henrietta Township, and the sale of his existing home in Park Rapids, all happened faster than expected, he said.
“My term was up in November anyways,” he said, “so I was kind of planning on just not running.”
In the 27 years since Rhode Island’s first charter school opened its doors, just one has closed. Segue Institute for Learning, a community charter in Central Falls, R.I., is among the state’s successes. It has an extraordinarily low student-to-teacher ratio of 4 to 1, even though it spends less than a typical Rhode Island school.
Part III
How Rhode Island’s charter schools succeeded where Minnesota’s failed
Each spring, Blackstone Valley Prep in Rhode Island hosts a loud, spirited and celebratory “college signing day” ceremony for its high school seniors. One by one, the teenagers step onstage to proudly announce their post-graduation plans. Many are the first in their family to seek a degree.
Rhode Island is the smallest state in the country, but it’s here — and not in Minnesota, the birthplace of the charter school movement — that this daring experiment in public school education is paying big dividends for students and their families.
Left In the 27 years since Rhode Island’s first charter school opened its doors, just one has closed. Segue Institute for Learning, a community charter in Central Falls, R.I., is among the state’s successes. It has an extraordinarily low student-to-teacher ratio of 4 to 1, even though it spends less than a typical Rhode Island school.
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