Lino Lakes Home Burns To The Ground
Five-Alarm Fire Destroys Two Buildings
LINO LAKES - The morning of November 28 started like any other for the Cerney family, but by 10 a.m. the family home in Lino Lakes had burned to the ground.
PHOTO BY SHANNON DEVINNY
Firefighters from the Centennial Lakes, Hugo, Lexington, Vadnais Heights, and White Bear Lake fire departments responded to the massive blaze at 6350 Otter Lake Road, but it was too late to save Michael and Ann Cerney's house and nearby shop building.
PHOTO BY SHANNON DEVINNY
The fire, which began in the attached garage, was first spotted by an alert driver on I-35E and called in at 9:19 a.m. "I don't know how long it burned before anybody noticed it," Centennial Fire Chief Milo Bennett said later, "but it had to be burning long enough to cause the garage door to burn through or to open before anybody was even notified."
Law enforcement personnel closed Otter Lake Road at CSAH 14 and at County Road J around 9:30 a.m. before firefighters arrived on the scene, but not before passersby already driving on the two-lane frontage road along the east side of I-35E - including The Citizen's Ad Sales Manager Shannon DeVinny - had a full view of the fully-engulfed structure fire.
"Seriously, there is just a frame left; everything is totally gone," DeVinny said, describing the house, in a cell phone call from her car.
At that time, it wasn't clear that the pole building located just to the north of the structure fire would escape damage. It did not; random pieces of metal framing were all that was leftof the shop the morning after the fire, when representatives from State Farm Insurance were spotted on scene.
According to Chief Bennett, the building housed a shop with a business in it.
The couple's three children, ages 11, 9 and 5, were already at school when the fire was called in.
In an on-scene interview, Ann Cerny told KSTP News, "We lost all the pictures and memorabilia from the kids' scrapbooks.
"We had some antiques from our grandmother, we had all her fine china.it's all gone." The family is grateful that no one was injured in the fire, which is still under investigation at this time by the Anoka County Fire Investigation Team. The house is a total loss.
An e-mail sent to The Citizen from family friends said that the Cerneys will be staying with friends and family members who live in the area. Donations to the Cerney Fire Fund will be accepted at any Wells Fargo Bank.