When Carrie Nelson finished her work shift the afternoon of Nov. 9 she drove home like she would any given Monday.
Only this time, she drove up to her home on Moburg Lake to smoke coming out of the roof.
“I went in to open the garage door and I could see it was full of smoke,” Nelson said. “I closed the door and I came back and called 911.”
The Brainerd Fire Department received the page at 2:18 p.m. to a possible structure fire on the 4100 block of Moburg Lake Road, situated between Gull Lake and North Long Lake, north of Baxter.
Nelson called her husband Wayne Nelson to inform him their home of 22 years was on fire.
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“Thank goodness, I didn’t have any pets in the house,” Carrie Nelson said, as the home was empty at the time. “I had two dogs die this spring. It’s been a (expletive) of a 2020. ... One died in March and the other died in July, one died of old age and the other of cancer.”
Nelson said someone asked her if she grabbed a fire extinguisher and she said there was so much smoke, she wasn’t able to do so.
Brainerd firefighters arrived and were able to get the fire under control. Brainerd Fire Chief Tim Holmes said the fire appeared to have started in the kitchen.
“The homeowner just put the oven on the self cleaning (mode) this morning and when she arrived back home she noticed smoke coming from the vents, opened the door and found the house full of smoke,” Holmes said. “It started around the oven or stove in the kitchen, on the main floor. ... The fire extended into the attic space, so we’re just working on making sure the fire is completely out in the attic space and kind of cleaning up, doing overhaul in the kitchen.”
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Holmes said there possibly could have been a malfunction in the oven relating to its self-cleaning mechanism.
“It’s unknown at this time exactly what would have caused the fire around the stove,” Holmes said. “The fire caused heavy damage throughout the whole house, so they won’t be able to stay here. We’ll get them some resources to help if they need, but it looks like they have plenty of neighbors and family here to help them out.”
There were 18 firefighters who responded to the scene or were staffing the fire station.
