Boy dies, three injured in western Minnesota house fire
A 2-year-old boy died and three other people were injured in a house fire early Sunday morning in western Minnesota.
The Becker County Sheriff's Office said the fire was reported at about 12:45 a.m. along Duffney Road in Holmesville Township, about 9 miles northeast of Detroit Lakes.
The first deputy on the scene found the home fully engulfed, with one child missing.
Authorities said children in the basement of the home were alerted to the fire by smoke alarms sounding. They found flames on the main floor and alerted other family members.
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A stairway to the second floor was blocked by flames, but the children's parents were able to get out of the home through a second-floor window.
"After learning their 2-year-old was unaccounted for, the child's father and older brother went back into the home to find the child but were unable due to the house being fully engulfed," the sheriff's office reported.
The boy's body was later found in the home.
Two adults and a 5-year-old girl were airlifted to hospitals in Fargo and Minneapolis with burns and smoke inhalation; the sheriff's office said their conditions were not known as of Sunday afternoon. The names of those involved have not been released.
The cause of the fire is under investigation by local and state officials.