Fire update (VIDEO)

The house fire in Brooten is being investigated by Xcel Energy and the Minnesota state fire marshal. Their reports will include incredible, bizarre timelines of what happened.

I know our B-B-E community will take care of them. We will move mountains for the Goodwin family. We all know that they would do anything for the school and our community, and the same goes in reverse. We love the Goodwins. They are the best people.

Here's the first video I recorded last night. It was just a couple minutes shy of 8 o'clock. Fire trucks continued rolling in after this.


I am happy to report that the Goodwin family is "in good spirits" and are as thankful as anyone that no one got hurt. They were very concerned about the fact that children could have been harmed by what took place. We are extremely lucky that no family is involved funeral planning. It could have easily gone very, very differently.

Unfortunately, and tragically, their house received extensive damage, and our entire B-B-E community is very, very sad about that. Their house was literally attacked by at least one power line. That's the simplest way to explain it. The house was under attack, and it happened quickly and in an unforgiving manner.

Whether you see the damage in person, or you see it just through my videos, please understand that this fire started on the roof and went down. It was very, very strange. Once it burned long enough on the roof, it was impossible to prevent it from burning what was under the roofline.

Once the roof started on fire, the Goodwins were unaware of what was taking place right outside. The wind was howling and gusting over 50 miles an hour. It's a situation of this: you hear a large explosion, or a boom, and your instincts tell you to stay inside. You stay in the safety and comforts of your own house. If trouble is brewing, you will be warned somehow, right? You don't go outside during a bad storm. You shelter in place, right?

In this case, a Good Samaritan warning came from a neighbor who told them to get out almost immediately after the roof started on fire. Even then, loose and live power line(s) were a threat to anyone outside the house. They were able to find shelter at a neighbor's place as the fire departments went to work. As I said last night, this was a three-alarm fire with Brooten, Belgrade and Elrosa responding. 

This was an extremely dangerous situation for nearly four hours until Xcel Energy finally disconnected the live, loose wire that had been glowing brightly next to a pine tree in the back alley.

Below, a video taken this afternoon:

A Brooten fire department member said it best today: "This shows how much you have to respect and fear the power of electricity." If a wire gets loose like it did last night, anything near it is a "sitting duck" and easy prey.

Just over eight years ago, I wrote on this sports blog about the incredibly tragic accidental death of Coach Rich Vos. He passed away on October 16, 2012. I think of that to put this into perspective. What happened last night was awful. I am just so glad we are not mourning the loss of life right now in Jaguar Country.