Fire at Vicksburg Village

It's been a crazy morning at Vicksburg Village Apartments:
A huge fire broke out at about 4:00 this morning. 

We had our windows open, so I was first woken up by the smell. 

Then I heard the sirens.

The building right next to ours was on fire.

It was insane.

The flames were huge.

The picture above is after the fire departments had been working for a while, so the flames are smaller. Also, it's from the opposite side of the building that the fire was actually on.

Here's some pictures from the other side of the building:

Firefighters from tons of different departments seemed to be working in shifts.

From the vehicles I saw, the departments on scene included: Plymouth, Maple Grove, Eden Prairie, Brooklyn Center, Hopkins, Bloomington, Rogers, Golden Valley, and St. Louis Park.

You can see the damage; This is one of two huge holes in the building. They are saying the fire started on the second floor.

...Still battling the flames at 5:30 in the morning, an hour and a half after we were woken up from the smell and commotion. 

Everything's dying down now (about 7am).

The fire appeared to be put out about 6:00.

But fire trucks and cops are still all over, tables/tents for injuries still set up:

But the commotion has slowed.

They believe it was caused from one of the AC's on someone's patio (each room in each building has it's own AC, located on each patio).

They say the reason the fire reached the extent that it did was because it's a wood building, and our buildings don't have sprinkler systems installed.

Did NOT know that.

Note to self: if you ever move to an apartment building, might be a good idea to check that they have a sprinkler system installed in their buildings...

Miraculously, nobody was injured.

The police chief reported that they believe everyone made it out safely.

I did most of the investigating and picture taking on my own with Tom's phone...once we discovered the fire was contained and our building was safe, Thomas had no problem going back to sleep, despite all the commotion, noise, and smell. 

He'll have no problem with the baby's cries when he arrives... :P