Kay Roberts turned on the news Wednesday morning and learned his south Minneapolis medical office was on fire. "I just got to turn the TV on and, my God, here's our clinic," Roberts said.

His Southgate Physical Therapy clinic occupies part of a single-story building that also houses Bloomington Lake Clinic, which has treated generations of families since the Great Depression.

The fire, which began about 2:40 a.m., burned for several hours, disrupting traffic at a major intersection and the lives of many neighborhood residents who rely on the clinics.

"We've prided ourselves on being able to provide care for people in the area who arrive by bus," said Dr. Walter Hinck, who has been with Bloomington Lake Clinic since 1985. "We don't have a good solution" for those clients in the short-term.

Hinck, the physician-owned clinic's assistant medical director, said it will be a few days before the clinic can figure out a care plan for many of its patients. Some are in families that have been coming to the facility since it opened in the mid-1930s and operated for a few years about half a block from its current site. It also has a facility in Bloomington.

"I'm just concerned about the records, the medical records," Roberts said. The potentially good news was that the records likely burned were only for those patients who had appointments on Wednesday. The rest were in metal file cabinets, and unless water seeped into them, Roberts said, "I'm not too worried about it."

Star Tribune
Minneapolis firefighters were on the scene of a fire at Bloomington Lake Clinic at the corner of Bloomington Avenue South and Lake St.

His business has been at the location for 14 years. The search was on for a space to reopen, he said, perhaps as early as next week.

The first crews to arrive found flames coming from a void in the attic, said Assistant Fire Chief Cherie Penn. Eleven pieces of equipment and 50 firefighters were on the scene at the blaze's height, Penn said.

Firefighters were prevented three times from battling the blaze from inside, because the fire's location in the roof posed a danger, Penn said. The cause is under investigation.

The Bloomington-Lake intersection was closed during the morning rush hour. Metro Transit was forced to divert buses.

There was no one in the building when the fire broke out, and no firefighters were hurt, Penn said.

Staff writer Anthony Lonetree contributed to this report pwalsh@startribune.com • 612-673-4482 mckinney@startribune.com • 612-673-7329