Minneapolis firefighters hurt battling business fire; Indigenous archive at risk

Twin Cities News Minneapolis firefighters hurt battling business fire; Indigenous archive at risk By Ashley Grams Ashley Grams Reporter Reporter Ashley Grams joined WCCO in the summer of 2025. She's excited to be in Minnesota after spending much of her life on the West Coast. Read Full Bio Ashley Grams Updated on: October 12, 2026 / 9:56 AM CDT / CBS Minnesota Add CBS News on Google The Minneapolis Fire Department says two firefighters were hospitalized with minor burns in a blaze Sunday evening that put decades of Dakota and Ojibwe educational materials at risk. Assistant Fire Chief Melanie Rucker says her department was notified around 4 p.m. of "someone possibly starting a fire" inside a business on the corner of East Franklin and South 13th avenues, just a few blocks west of Highway 55/Hiawatha Avenue. Rucker says crews arrived to find flames inside the building, but racks inside were impeding their movement and eventually blocked their exits, leading two firefighters to suffer burns. WCCO "But they were able to come out on their own, so we were luckily we're not able to have to, you know, send them in. So they're both being treated at the hospital right now, they're doing fine," Rucker said. "They're in stable condition with some minor burns, a lot of exhaustion trying to, you know, get out, but we have our masks on so there shouldn't have been any smoke inhalation or anything like that."Rucker says it led to a mayday call for a three-alarm fire, with 50 to 60 firefighters dispatched to scene to rotate in and out."Half of the building, the 1300 building roof, has collapsed. We have had several of the large air conditioning units fall through the roof," Rucker said. "At some point, firefighters were on the roof when one of the air conditioners did fall through, and they were able to exit the roof, but they weren't near that collapse." Tony Morales Rucker says crews focused on keeping the blaze from spreading to neighboring businesses. "Usually the older brick buildings do have a fire stop, but they have a common basement," Rucker said. "A lot of water damage and smoke damage that we are really quite concerned about."That connected building is the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, which contains in invaluable Ojibwe and Dakota written language archive."The Fond du Lac Chippewa Tribe, the Fond du Lac Urban Tribe is also housed in this building, which she has things that you can't replace," said LaSasha McGinnis, who says she works in the building. "There's unreplaceable things in this building from water damage, smoke damage. It's actually really sad to see this here."Jamal Osman, who represents Ward 6 in the Minneapolis City Council, released a statement on the fire Sunday night, saying in part, "Franklin Avenue is home to so many of the people and places that make our community who we are. Tonight, let's look out for one another." The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Beret Leone and Stephen Swanson contributed to this report. In: Fire Minneapolis Featured Local Savings 2 hurt in shooting across from former Minneapolis Kmart site, police say Man shot dead early Sunday in northeast Minneapolis, police say Video shows N.J. firefighter cutting roof open with chainsaw during large fire Frey nominates Bill Peterson as next Minneapolis police chief Minneapolis school officials seek pause on closure plans William Penn Inn closed indefinitely afte