Fire crews battled a major structure fire at a storage facility in Buffalo Wednesday evening and into the early morning hours on Thursday.
Buffalo Fire Chief John Harnois says his department was dispatched shortly after 9:15 PM Wednesday to the Gopher State Storage facility south of Highway 55 near Target and Menards.
Chief Harnois says when crews arrived on the scene, they found four to five of the storage units were showing flames coming through the roof, and the blaze spread quickly, affecting more than 20 units before it was brought under control. Harnois says as many as 40-plus units also had smoke damage.
Fire crews from Buffalo were assisted by the St. Michael and Rockford Fire Departments. Firefighters had to battle not only the flames, but also the unusually warm temperatures, and additional smoke from the northern Minnesota and Canadian forest fires. Crews were on the scene for roughly 6 hours. Thankfully no injuries to any of the fire volunteers or other first responders were reported.
Chief Harnois says at least two vehicles, and an unknown amount of stored items were destroyed in the blaze.
The State Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the cause of the fire.
