MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – The 911 call transcripts from a fatal Aug. 13 Minneapolis fire reveal frantic calls made to dispatchers as residents fled from flames.

911 call reveals frantic escape

The transcript shows a caller telling the 911 operator that “someone set our building on fire” as the caller ran through the hallway to escape. The caller also said “The whole hallway is hot” and “smoking.”

The caller then realized they forgot their cats were inside and pleaded with the 911 operator to send help quickly. The operator then tells the caller to remain outside before firetruck sirens are heard in the background. Officials did not report any deceased animals or pets following the fire. 

READ MORE: Minneapolis apartment fire deaths, search details provided by fire chief

Fire crews did rescue a dog that was reunited with its owner after receiving oxygen treatment.

911 caller reports possible suspect

Another 911 caller reported someone set the fire in the second-floor hallway. 

The caller then gave a description of who they believe set the fire, but police say no arrests related to the fire have been made. 

What we know 

The fire was reported just before 10 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 13, at a four-story apartment building in the 1500 block of 11th Avenue South in Minneapolis.

The fire left four people hospitalized, including a child, while several others had to be rescued from the burning building. Two adults and a child were treated for burn injuries and another person was treated for smoke inhalation. 

The first body was found around 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 15. Authorities described the victim as an elderly man who was found under the debris of a collapsed roof. 

The second body was found later in the day on Thursday. Officials say the victim was a woman who was also found underneath the debris.

Both fatal victims were found in the same apartment on the top floor.

READ MORE: Minneapolis apartment fire leaves 4 hospitalized, others rescued from building

The building was not equipped with an automatic sprinkler system.

What we don’t know 

Officials have not announced any charges related to the fire, but said they are investigating it as an arson. 

Police say the fire is still under investigation and no arrests have been made. 

A man received a 47-year prison sentence for killing two people in Minneapolis, including a man from St. Paul, and for the attempted murder of an additional two people.

Ali Reed, a 26-year-old from St. Paul, lost his life “simply by being at the wrong place at the wrong time,” his mother said previously.

Reed and another person encountered a group of three males walking near 21st Street East and Chicago Avenue South on June 25, 2023. After they crossed paths, a man in the group of three pulled out a handgun and shot Reed. Reed collapsed and died at the scene. The person with him ran away and was shot at.

Then, on July 23, 2023, police responded to a shooting at an apartment in the 3000 block of East 58th Street and found Tonia Powell, 30, with multiple gunshot wounds. She died at the hospital. Another woman in Powell’s apartment had also been shot; she underwent surgery and survived.

Investigators matched firearms evidence from both shooting scenes, and arrested Calon Markus Hatchett on July 24, 2023, with the gun used in the shootings, according to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office. Hatchett was sentenced Wednesday.

Bethlehem Lutheran Church in the Midway in St. Paul, where Reed was baptized and where his funeral was held, dedicated a garden in front of the church as “Ali’s Garden” in June.

Reed’s family remembered him in his obituary as as “a smart, loyal, funny, and fearless man who was always ready for the next adventure. He had a contagious smile and outgoing personality.”

Originally Published: August 29, 2024 at 9:45 a.m.

In the early days of the George Floyd riots, while the police were overwhelmed, someone smashed a car into Thurston Jewelers on Lake Street in Minneapolis.  The store was overrun by looters. The display cases were smashed. Lloyd Drilling says he was lucky that the most expensive jewelry was in the safe. Anything that could be carried out the door was stolen.

“So, that basically put us out of business for a few months, and we had to rebuild the store and fix it back up,” says Drilling.

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The jewelry store bounced back, but the customers did not.

In the town that pioneered the movement to defund the police, the homeless population is present on most city blocks. Open-air drug use is so common it doesn’t attract attention and petty crime plagues the businesses who were able to re-open.

As a result, Drilling says, the suburban population which used to push his business from surviving to thriving does not come downtown anymore. “I think they feel like they are unsafe in the city, in this area and in the [other] areas. They’re a little scared to come down here,” says Drilling.

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Criminals make every aspect of business difficult in downtown Minneapolis. Koby Rich opened a cosmetic store. He keeps a painted rectangle of plywood on the front door of Rich Girl’s Cosmetics because vandals keep breaking the glass on his front door. He’s tired of spending money to fix it.

“It makes it tough because vandalism it causes, you know, when your windows get busted out, when you get your doors kicked in when you get your whole store tore up,” says Rich.

A protester holds a sign that says Blue Lives Murder on Friday night, May 29, 2020.  (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Jim Schultz with the Minnesota Private Business Council says there is a direct link to the rise in criminal activity and the leadership of Governor Tim Walz. “A lot of Democrat leaders in the state got behind really reckless policies when it comes to policing and crime,” says Schulz. “And the result was the greatest increase in violent crime in Minnesota’s history. And Tim Walz has presided over that. Minnesota’s businesses continue to feel the effects of that.”

Even without the crime, business owners and business leaders say Minnesota, with Governor Walz at the helm, has not been friendly to job creators.

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The state has the highest statutory corporate tax rate in the United States at 9.8 %. Doug Loon with the Minnesota Chamber of commerce says the Walz administration missed opportunities to grow jobs because the Governor had other priorities. “Many progressive policies passed by the legislature and signed by the Governor have limited the private sector from reaching its economic potential,” says Loon.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the running mate of Vice President Kamala Harris, Democratic nominee for president, attends a rally to kick off their campaign at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, Pa., on Tuesday, August 6, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

The chamber says Minnesota now ranks 47th out of all the states in the nation for job creation and 46th for Gross Domestic Product.

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Kent Bergman opened the Campanelle restaurant in Lino Lakes, a suburb of Minneapolis. He endured the covid lockdowns. But burdened with taxes and regulations, he’s still living off his own savings, unable to take home a profit. “With all the mandates and everything coming down on us as a restaurant a small business we are in, the state’s making it almost impossible for a small business or a restaurant to make it,” says Bergman.