Kitchen fire causes $10K in damage to NW Rochester apartment

(ABC 6 News) – A kitchen fire caused significant damage to an NW Rochester apartment Monday afternoon.

Just after 2 p.m., firefighters were called to the Gates Apartments for a report of a fire.

While en route units were updated that there was thick black smoke visible coming from the 2nd floor. The caller was trying to alert occupants to evacuate the building.

Firefighters arrived on the scene and say they were able to extinguish the flames with a pressurized water can. Officials say the fire originated in the kitchen and did significant damage to the oven and kitchen cabinets, and minor smoke damage to the rest of the apartment totaling around $10,000. There were no injuries during the incident.

The Rochester Fire Department said cooking is by far the leading cause of structure fires in Minnesota; almost half of all structure fires are due to cooking, which is over 4 times more than the next cause according to a 2017 report by the MN State Fire Marshall.

The top three factors in cooking fires are unattended cooking, combustibles too close to cooking equipment, and cooking equipment accidentally turned on.

Rochester Police Department, Mayo Clinic Ambulance, & Minnesota Energy also responded to the scene.