Fire alarm empties apartment building

Residents of the Carlton Lofts apartments in Cloquet were forced to exit the building Sunday night when a fire alarm went off just before midnight. Fortunately, it was not a big fire and the alarms worked as they should. Unfortunately, it left a lot of folks standing around in their pajamas for at least a couple of hours outside the former middle school building.

Firefighter Jason Maki said residents were already outside when first responders arrived. While the call was initially for an alarm, firefighters found light smoke in a hallway when they arrived, so the call was upgraded and ultimately trucks from Stations 2 and 3 joined Station 1 crews along with Cloquet police officers. Maki said there had been a small fire in an apartment, triggering sprinklers that extinguished the fire but also caused significant damage to the apartment.

Recca Silda said her roommates were almost asleep when a friend walked in and said the alarm was for the whole building.

"I peeked out and people were running down the hallway and told the guys, 'we gotta get out.' So, pajamas and all, we came out and we're waiting to figure out what's up," Silda said. "We didn't smell anything or see anything."

Jeremiah Keckhafer was outside in just a pair of bright yellow shorts and roommate Aaron Burnham wasn't exactly dressed for the cold night air either. Silda said they've had one alarm go off before, but just for a short time.

"Thank God it wasn't winter," another tenant chimed in. The apartment building, once a high school and middle school, opened late last year.

Firefighters were on the scene for close to three hours, although once they established there was no major threat, residents were allowed to go back inside for personal belongings. They weren't allowed to go in and stay until the fire department was certain it was completely safe.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, Maki said Monday.