A man was killed and a girl rescued by firefighters while flames engulfed a multifamily residential building in southeastern Minnesota before sunrise over the weekend, officials said.
Fire crews in Lake City were dispatched to N. Washington Street about 6:55 a.m. on Feb. 15 and saw the two-story building ablaze with residents trapped inside, said Fire Chief Dan Patterson.
The firefighters “were met with smoke and fire showing on all four sides as well as all around the roof line with the front porch collapsed in,” the chief’s statement read.
One occupant, described by Pattterson as a young female, was rescued from a second-floor window and taken by emergency responders to a medical facility, he said.
Search crews fought through heavy smoke and fire and a second-floor collapse before a man was located and determined to be dead, according to the chief.
The Wabasha County Sheriff’s Office identified the man as 45-year-old Richard Joseph Arruda. A family member posted on Facebook that Arruda’s daughter was the girl rescued by firefighters.
Fire crews remained on hand for seven hours tending to the fire and its aftermath, Patterson said.
Officials have yet to address the circumstances surrounding how the fire began.
