Boy, 2, dies in Brooklyn Center apartment fire

A 2-year-old boy died in an apartment fire Friday morning in Brooklyn Center, police said.

The fire at 4584 58th Av. N. was reported shortly before 11:30 a.m. by a resident of another apartment in the building, according to Cmdr. Brian Peters of the Brooklyn Center Police Department.

Peters said a man who had been in the apartment with the child jumped from a second-story balcony to escape the fire, and told police that the little boy was in a back bedroom. Police officers were unable to get inside the apartment because of heavy smoke. When firefighters arrived, they were able to get in and bring the child out, Peters said.

Dan Ryan, 49, who lives on the third floor, said he was alerted to the fire by maintenance workers who were pounding on residents' doors.

"Once I opened my door, all the black smoke was coming out in the hallway. … [I] could barely breathe," he said.

Once outside the building, Ryan said, he saw a teenage boy who said that his little brother was still inside. "The maintenance guys were trying to get in there … but it was just too, too much black smoke," Ryan said. "They couldn't make it in there until the fire department got here."

The boy's mother arrived on the scene and went with him by ambulance to North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale, where he was pronounced dead, Peters said.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, Peters said. At least two other apartment units suffered smoke and water damage.

Staff photographer Jim Gehrz contributed to this report. Susan Feyder • 612-673-1723