Detroit Lakes firefighters responded to a fire that heavily damaged the interior of a house on the 200 block of Minnesota Avenue in Detroit Lakes early Monday afternoon.
The homeowner was home at the time of the fire and is believed to have suffered some minor burns and smoke inhalation. He was treated at the Essentia Health St. Mary’s Hospital emergency room in Detroit Lakes. No other people or pets were in the house.
“The fire started in the living room, on or around the couch,” according to Detroit Lakes Fire Chief Ryan Swanson. The cause has not yet been determined, but a State Fire Marshal’s investigator was on the scene Monday to determine the cause, Swanson said.
The inside of the wood-frame house sustained heavy fire damage, and would essentially need to be gutted and rebuilt to make it habitable, Swanson said.
The same house sustained heavy fire damage in an evening fire on Sept. 5, 2019.
ADVERTISEMENT
In that case, the occupant was sleeping on a couch in the living room when the fire broke out, and he believed it started in an ashtray, according to a man who was with him at the scene, and who said he had seen the flames while driving by and called 911.
