Fireworks are suspected of igniting a three-alarm fire that heavily damaged an apartment building Sunday afternoon in St. Paul's Highland Park neighborhood.
About 30 residents of the building in the 1300 block of St. Paul Avenue were displaced and all 17 units were condemned by inspectors from the Safety and Inspections Department, according to Roy Mokosso, the St. Paul Fire Department's deputy chief.
Residents said they had heard fireworks about 4:15 p.m. just before seeing flames on the building's lawn. Investigators found fireworks debris where the fire was believed to have started, Mokosso said.
Gusty winds fanned the flames, which quickly spread to nearby trees and jumped to the attic space above the building's third floor, Mokosso said.
More than 60 firefighters from 12 companies went to the scene.
No one was injured, Mokosso said.
Initial estimates put the damage at about $2 million.
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