Woman Dies in Robbinsdale Apartment Fire
One woman has died after an early morning apartment fire in Robbinsdale, police said Tuesday.
First responders were called to Robbins Landing, an apartment building in downtown Robbinsdale, at just after 5 a.m. Tuesday for a report of substantial smoke in a hallway.
Responders found the apartment, opened the door and saw what Robbinsdale police Capt. John Elder described as a “thick, dense cloud of smoke.”
There was one woman inside the affected apartment. Elder said responders attempted lifesaving measures, but was pronounced deceased.
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner is expected to release her identity and cause of death in the coming days.
“This is very sad. Somebody died out of this. This is one person who will not be sitting with family at the holidays coming up,” Elder said.
The fire was contained to that one unit, but other apartments did receive some water damage.
Robbins Landing sits between Bottineau Boulevard and West Broadway near downtown Robbinsdale.
Elder said as firefighters took care of the fire, residents were evacuated from the building and put on Metro Transit buses to keep warm. That offering is a part of a longstanding partnership between transit and police, he said.
Robbins Landing is a Section 8 community designed for low-income households. Most of its residents are either disabled or over 62 years old.
Elder said firefighters and police officers carried some residents down seven flights of stairs to bring them outside.
“It was an incredible amount of work, but heroic in a lot of those cases,” Elder said.
Though some streets were initially closed as crews took care of the scene, they reopened later Tuesday morning. All residents were allowed back in their homes about three hours after the initial evacuation.
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