Minneapolis Apartment Fire on East 24th Street Displaces a Dozen Residents

Editorial illustration: Minneapolis fire crews at a nighttime ground-floor apartment fire with a ladder truck and hose lines deployed. The image is an illustration prepared for this article, not a photograph of the incident.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — A ground-floor fire at a three-story apartment building on East 24th Street in South Minneapolis displaced about a dozen residents early Monday morning, and the American Red Cross was called in to arrange temporary housing while crews assessed the damage. No injuries were reported.

Minneapolis fire crews responded to the building at 510 E 24th St. shortly after 1 a.m. Monday, Oct. 19. Flames were concentrated on the ground floor, and residents of the second and third floors evacuated as smoke worked its way through the common areas above. Crews extinguished the fire within two hours. One resident was evaluated at the scene for smoke inhalation, and firefighters brought a dog and two cats out of the building uninjured.

Key facts from the scene:

• The fire was reported around 1 a.m. Monday, Oct. 19, 2026, at 510 E 24th St. in South Minneapolis.
• Flames were concentrated on the ground floor, and residents of the second and third floors evacuated because of smoke.
• About a dozen residents were displaced; updates reported by KARE 11 put the count at 13.
• No one was injured, and one resident was evaluated for smoke inhalation.
• Firefighters rescued a dog and two cats from the building.
• Crews extinguished the fire within roughly two hours.
• The American Red Cross was called to help residents who need temporary housing.
• The Minneapolis Fire Department has not released a cause, and it has not said when residents can return to their units.

What we know so far

The first crews arrived to find fire confined largely to the ground floor of the building, a three-story walk-up in the Longfellow neighborhood. Residents above the fire floor were evacuated as a precaution because smoke had moved into the upper levels through the stairwell and common spaces, the standard response pattern for a fire starting below occupied floors.

KARE 11's Colton Molesky reported from the scene that residents were told they may need to find an alternate place to sleep Monday night while fire crews examined the extent of the damage. The department did not give a timeline for re-entry, and displaced residents were directed to the Red Cross for assistance with lodging and immediate needs.

Firefighters searched the building and removed three pets, a dog and two cats, which was the extent of the rescue activity reported. Paramedics evaluated one resident for smoke inhalation, and no transport or further injuries were reported by the morning after the fire.

Related Coverage: How to Handle Commercial System Impairments under NFPA 25 in San Diego

What has not been released

As of Wednesday morning, Minneapolis fire officials have not said how the fire started, where on the ground floor it began, or whether any portion of the building's fire protection systems operated or failed during the incident. The department has also not published a damage estimate, a final count of the affected units, or a date when residents can return.

Until investigators finish their examination, those questions remain open, and any figure circulating about the fire's cause or cost is premature. This article will be updated as the department releases findings.

Why a ground-floor fire affects the whole building

A fire that starts on the ground floor of a walk-up apartment building is structurally the most difficult position for the building above it. Heat and smoke rise through the stairwell, and in older Minneapolis housing stock, many of these buildings were constructed with open stairways and shared chases that carry smoke to every floor within minutes. That is why residents two floors above a contained ground-floor fire still evacuate, and why the habitability question after the fire extends well past the unit that burned.

Water is the quieter half of the damage. Hose streams, ceiling breach and overhaul operations push water into floor assemblies, wall cavities and electrical runs on the fire floor, and it travels downward into basements and mechanical rooms. In a building where the ground floor holds common systems, that water routinely finds the electrical room, the laundry, or the low-voltage wiring for the fire alarm itself.

That last item is the one that determines what happens next. If the fire or the firefighting operation damaged sprinkler piping, alarm circuits or detection devices, the building's fire protection system is impaired, and an impaired system in an occupied building triggers obligations that begin immediately and run for days or weeks while repairs and inspections are completed.

The impairment sequence: NFPA 25, NFPA 72 and the fire watch

Under NFPA 25, the standard governing water-based fire protection systems, an impairment is not a maintenance item that can wait for a convenient repair window. While a sprinkler system is down, the property must maintain a fire watch, with documented patrol rounds through the affected areas on a set interval, until the system is restored and tested. NFPA 72 governs the inspection, testing and restoration of the fire alarm side of the impairment, including the notification appliances that a fire in an electrical room or common space can take offline.

In Minnesota, the State Fire Code incorporates these standards, and Minneapolis fire officials can require a fire watch in an occupied building whenever required protection is offline, following the same framework applied in other large cities. The practical sequence after a fire like the one on East 24th Street looks like this:

• The fire code official is notified of the impairment and determines the requirements for continued occupancy of the undamaged units.
• A fire watch is maintained continuously, day and night, until the impaired systems are restored and accepted. The patrol interval, the routes and the log format are documented before the first round begins.
• The watch is staffed by trained personnel whose sole duty is the watch itself, equipped with reliable two-way communication.
• Restoration work carries its own requirements. Any hot work performed by contractors cutting, welding or grinding in the damaged structure follows an NFPA 51B permit and a post-work watch.
• The watch is discontinued in writing once the systems pass restoration tests and the authority having jurisdiction signs off.

The patrol log is the record the fire marshal reviews, and it is also the record the insurer asks for. A round logged with times, names and observations at consistent intervals is what separates a compliant watch from a nominal one. USPA's technical white paper on fire watch operations walks through what inspectors expect to see in that documentation: USPA Fire Watch White Paper. For a closer look at the patrol rounds themselves, see Fire Watch Patrol Rounds: What Inspectors Expect to See.

None of this sequence can start late. The gap between a fire scene being released and a fire watch being established is where a smoldering void, a damaged riser or a rekindle turns a single-floor incident into a second emergency. Dispatching an emergency fire watch with same-day start is the most time-sensitive line item on a post-fire checklist.

The security exposure that follows displacement

A dozen residents leaving a building in the middle of the night leaves the remaining structure in an unusual condition. Some units are vacated and hold belongings the residents could not take with them. The damaged ground floor is accessible to anyone who approaches. Normal access controls, key fobs, locked entries, sight lines from occupied units, are weakened precisely when the building is most exposed.

Property owners in this position generally face two obligations at once. The first is to the investigation: fire investigators and insurance adjusters will need the scene preserved, which means controlled access and a documented log of who enters the damaged areas. The second is to the displaced residents and the insurer: vacated units and their contents have to be protected against opportunistic entry until residents can return. A posted security officer at the entry, a visitor log limited to authorized investigators and contractors, and scheduled perimeter checks are the standard controls, and they are the same controls a Minneapolis security guard services assignment carries on post-fire and post-loss properties.

Property managers reviewing their own readiness after an incident like this one can use the displacement itself as the trigger: confirm who is authorized to order fire watch coverage, verify the impairment procedure is documented in the emergency binder, and identify the provider before the outage happens rather than during it. The renewal-cycle questions that matter for guard coverage are covered in What a Property Manager Should Ask a Guard Vendor Before Renewing.

Previously Reported: Plano Apartment Fire Treated as Arson: Man Rescued From Balcony at Villas at Chase Oaks, 10 Units Uninhabitable

The two incidents differ in cause, and the Plano fire remains an active arson investigation, but the operational aftermath is the same shape in both cases: an occupied multifamily building with damaged protection systems, displaced residents, and a property owner who must cover fire watch and scene security from the first night forward.

Fire watch and security coverage in Minneapolis

USPA Nationwide Security staffs emergency fire watch and access security across Minneapolis, St. Paul and the surrounding metro, 24 hours a day. Officers arrive briefed on the property's impairment, run NFPA-compliant patrol rounds with full documentation, and hold the post until the fire code official or the property formally discontinues the watch.

If a protection system outage, a fire scene hold or a hot work project leaves your Minneapolis building without coverage:

• Fire watch services in Minneapolis-St. Paul: emergency and scheduled fire watch with same-day start, NFPA 25 and NFPA 72 compliant logs, and coordination with Minneapolis Fire-Rescue.
• Security guard services in Minneapolis: licensed uniformed officers for post-fire access control, vacated building protection and construction site security.

Both assignments can start with a single call to (800) 214-1448, and documentation is issued with the service so the property, the insurer and the fire code official each receive the record they need.

Sources and latest developments

The reporting in this article is based on coverage by KARE 11, whose reporter Colton Molesky provided scene reporting on the morning of the fire, and on information attributed to Minneapolis fire crews. The original report is available here: Minneapolis apartment fire displaces a dozen residents.

Open questions as of publication: the fire's cause and point of origin, the final count of affected units, a damage estimate, and the timeline for residents to return. This article will be updated as the Minneapolis Fire Department releases findings.