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Firefighters extinguish a shop fire Tuesday evening, Oct. 21 at the Pipestone property of Matthias and Larissa Pemberton. It’s unclear what caused the fire. Photo by Kyle Kuphal
A fire at the Matthias and Larissa Pemberton property in Pipestone damaged a shop and other property, but injured no one on Tuesday evening, Oct. 21.
Larissa Pemberton said the day after the fire, that they saw a haze out the window and went outside to find smoke coming from their shop, which is around 35 feet from closest part of their house.
“We had been in there probably 30 to 45 minutes prior to that,” she said. “My husband and my boys were out there hanging out, moving some Legos up into the lofted area, so the boys could do their Legos and kind of have their little hangout space up there.”
After they discovered the smoke, she went inside to get her phone to call 911, and when she got back outside there were flames coming out of the building. According to the Pipestone County Sheriff’s Office, the call came in at 6:07 p.m. Larissa said firefighters arrived within four or five minutes, but by that time the whole building was on fire.
“That thing was fully engulfed,” said Pipestone Fire Chief Mike Bloemendaal. “There was big flames coming off the top.”
The wind was blowing toward the house and heat from the fire broke the windows on the side of the house facing the shop. There was some smoke damage in the rooms on that side of the house and the gutters and seals around the windows were warped by the heat.
“But we have a steel roof, thank God,” Larissa said. “I think if we didn’t have a steel roof, that roof would have been started up.”
Bloemendaal said firefighters used a large hose to spray the house with water to protect it and fought the fire on the shop with three smaller hoses. Larissa said she and Matthias were thankful and impressed by how quickly firefighters responded and the work they did.
“Kudos to them,” she said. “I think if it had been a couple minutes later, that house would have been lit up.”
She also expressed gratitude to other community members, friends and neighbors who reached out and offered to help.
Neither Bloemendaal nor the family knew what caused the fire. Larissa said it looked like the fire might have started in the front of the building near the garage door and that they were waiting for the insurance company to send an inspector to see what they could find out.
Larissa said the family was not displaced by the fire. They did, however, lose tools, several bicycles, a motorcycle, music equipment and other items that were in the shop. A vehicle that was parked in front of the shop also started on fire.
“That was on fire within two minutes of us being outside,” Larissa said. “I think there was just so much heat coming from that garage right off that the flames didn’t even have to hit the car to start it. It just kind of combusted.”
According to the Pipestone County Sheriff’s Office, emergency responders were at the Pembertons’ property until 7:42 p.m. In addition to the Pipestone Fire Department, the Holland Fire Department, Pipestone County Sheriff’s Office and Pipestone County Ambulance responded to the fire.