No injuries after Mpls. house explosion

Cleaning up
Reports of an explosion brought fire fighters to a house fire near 31st and Grand Ave. in Minneapolis.
Jennifer Simonson

The Minneapolis Fire Department said no one was injured in a suspected gas explosion at a house in south Minneapolis Tuesday.

The blast knocked part of the front wall of the house away from the rest of the structure.

No one was home at the time, but Minneapolis fire officials found a dog had died.

Acting Battalion Chief Mike Fust said the building was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived around 4p.

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"It's a four-plex, so it's fairly cut up," Fust said. "The fire was pretty well entrenched throughout all four units, which presented some difficulty because of the amount of the fire they had on all floors."

Chaltu Berento was walking along Grand Avenue with her friend. She said they were in front of 3043 Grand, when they heard a loud boom.

"And we turned around and we saw that the front part of the house had come off, and there was a couple pieces of cloth on fire," Berento said.

Centerpoint Energy is assisting with the investigation.