Downtown fire

Comment: Taken with my LG VX8300 phone from the 14th floor conference room of 100 Washington. (2/20/08 @ 11:15 a.m.)

Kare11 reports:

A 2-alarm fire has broken out in downtown Minneapolis.

The building houses Maxwell's American Cafe and is located at 1203 Washington Avenue South.

Flames were seen shooting out of 2nd and 3rd floors of the building. It is believed that apartments are above Maxwell's.

Crews have been ordered out of the building and it has also been evacuated.


Updated: Maxwell's, furniture store fire started in storage area

A favorite lunchtime spot for downtown workers and a neighboring furniture store sustained heavy damage in a large fire this morning in downtown Minneapolis..

Crews responded to a blaze on the roof top of a building at 1203 Washington Av. S. around 10:30 a.m., said Sean McKenna, a fire department spokesman.

"It was a heavy fire when crews arrived," McKenna said.

No one was hurt, but parts of the building housing the Scandia Furniture Company and Maxwell's American Cafe collapsed, he said.

The fire broke out in a storage area on the third floor of the building where there are a few apartments. All the residents escaped unhurt, but one lost a cat in the fire, he said.

Washington Avenue was closed while crews battled the fire, but the street reopened around 1:40 p.m.



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