Grill caused fire at St. Louis Park apartments

Updated: June 14, 2009 - 11:18 PM

A charcoal grill is the origin of a fire that damaged as many as 80 units at a St. Louis Park apartment complex Saturday evening.

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A charcoal grill is the origin of a fire that damaged as many as 80 units at a St. Louis Park apartment complex Saturday evening.

The grill was on a wooden deck on the third floor, said St. Louis Park Fire Chief Luke Stemmer. That is prohibited by city ordinance, he said, adding that it's too early to tell whether the grill owner would be fined for the violation.

The fire broke out about 6:45 p.m. at the 290-unit Park Glen Apartments in the 4500 block of Park Glen Road.

It's unclear whether the grill was in use at the time, or how exactly the fire spread to the building, Stemmer said on Sunday.

"Once the deck caught on fire ... it traveled up the wood siding, to the other decks and into the attic space," he said.

The fire then spread rapidly through the attic space, the chief said. The fire was brought under control in about an hour, and a few firefighters and two civilians were treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

The building has sprinklers in the underground garage, but none in the rest of the building, Stemmer said. The building was grandfathered into current fire codes, and is not required to have sprinklers.

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