Fire at Regency
The horrible fire at regency apartments in Bemidji, MN. Pray for the people who live there that they will find shelter and deal with the devastations that come with this situation. “The fire is believed to be one of the worst in Bemidji since a fire destroyed Central Elementary School in 1958. Anderson said the apartment fire appeared to have started on the balcony of a central third-floor apartment, but that was speculation until the investigation was complete. No civilian injuries were reported, but a Bemidji firefighter was treated and released at North Country Regional Hospital.” (Quote from Bemidji Pioneer)
i wuz der when it happened. wasnet there a guy who was grilling?
i was by Mi Rancho and i thought the mall was on fire i was mad then i seen it was regency.there rebuilding though
that was my first fire seen in person
thanks mikey its nice to hear that
I love it how everyone is a critic that wasn’t there do you ever think that you can’t see everything that is happening from tose crappy videos. How about the fact that a large protion of the appartment building was saved?
@Paul1Cay have they or are they announcing the cig. thing cus on the news it said somone had a charcoal grill and if it was a cig kinda makes me mad what do we watch the news for if they dont even get there facts straight first..ya know
I was on a bus going home when I saw the smoke to this fire. We thought it was Wal Mart, but a dude on the bus said that his friend told him it was the apartments behind Wal Mart.
all of us at Oak Hills are praying for the people affected by this.
Kudos to the 45 Bemidji firefighters, the numerous firefighters from surrounding communities and the support personal that assisted on this fire. This fire posed many challenges, and that is was contained in about 2 hours is a testiment of the hard work of many dedicated individuals. This being a wind driven fire in a large attic space contributed to the large volume of fire seen on the video. Look a pics after the fire and it was contained between the two firewalls in the attic
I was talking about the drivers not the camera man its all the people driving down there and getting in the way and then talking crap about the speed of the fire department saying the vacation crack. I realize the camera men was not int the way.
Umm. Genius. That video was clearly shot out of his apartment window. I don’t think he was blocking traffic from his living room.
originally i called 911 around 3:00 and they asked if I could help evacuate people, so i ran threw the halls pounding on doors screaming “get out! fire!”
After the police got there and kicked all of us off the grounds, i went back to my apartment. This recording was taken from my apartment.
Maybe the awesome firefighters could have got in there faster if there was not so many people going down there to see and clogging up traffic. Really people you should be ashamed. Get out of the way and let these brave men do what they need to and stop rubber necking all the damn time
Drunk moron with a barbecue.
The worst of the damage and fire flames were directly above our apartment yet no fire damage to our apartment! Just extreme water and smoke damage, many many of my personal items that cant be replaced were saved! I didn’t have renters insurance but will recover
Life goes on! Thanks to all for all the prayers, definatly a very tough time for many!
My apt. was 208! A few comments to post… First of all it was a cigarette that started the fire on the third floor. The fire spread up the wall and into the attic. Because of this there were no signs of smoke in the building for quite some time. So by the time the firefighters got there there was already flames coming out of the roof. They did an amazing job. Seven apartments on the third floor were wiped out completely…….
damn i feel for these people!!! i lost my house to a fire in the summer of 08 and we’re still recovering from it, financially and emotionally. It was a huge devastation but definitely made our family closer!!! the smoke and the water do way more damage than people think…. they did the most damage in our house…. i hope all these people are ok and have family around…. GOD BLESS!!!!
The smoke was so bad that it reached all the way to the other side of the town (where I live) and turned it from fresh air to smoky and sunny to cloudy.
Yeah, my friend has to live in a hotel because of the fire. And the fire started by a charcoal grill. In my thinking its, hey, its the 21st Century, get propane. When you think about it the more dangerous a item is, the less dangerous it is, the less dangerous it is, the more dangerous it is.
Somebody better hope they have renter’s insurance.
I Going home from the Middle school on the bus and all you heard was a lot of “holy craps” and ‘oh my gods’ at first all you could see was a huge plume of black smoke and everyone thought the mall was on fire…then we got to that stop light by paulbunyan telephone and saw the flames. It was pretty crazy… Only bad fire that’s happened to Bemidji for a awhile…Hope everyone and everything will be alright my heart goes out to them…
True. I think the main reason why they didn’t establish vertical ventilation right off the bat is due to evacuation and judging from the black smoke, I imagine there was a lot of furniture and plastics and that just kicked the fire off like a fat kid at a bakery, and when they finally could get the chance too, the fire had already punched through the roof.
@Hypothermicent
If you watch closely at the end, you can see what looks like a water stream from a Squirt on the other side of the apartments. We firefighters break a building down into 4 sides, usually A, B, C, and D, with A being the front, and the rest going clockwise. The reason why you see one Engine is because the side we see is the back for the building, or C side, and they were just there to keep the fire contained and help stop it from spreading while every one else is up front.
Without proper ventilation in the early stages the Telesquirt was probably doing more harm than good. I imagine their training officer is discussing coordinating ventilation with the attack as we speak.
Remember that when they also go there, not only does it take a while to position fire trucks, run hoses, etc… but first primary mission is to make sure everyone is evacuated. According to the paper it too almost 20 min cause there was so many apartments. From how fast this fire spread… i commend the firefighters for doing their duty.