His wife was safe. The children - one, two, three, four, five - were all accounted for. But a woman was still stuck inside the burning Dilworth home of Minnesota State Patrol Trooper Randy Harms, so he ran back inside.
Harms and the woman - one of two college students who rent the apartment unit above his garage - escaped the fire Wednesday with just singed hair and eyebrows.
The morning blaze gutted Harms' house at 108 1st St. N., causing significant smoke and heat damage to the family's living area and heavy fire and smoke damage to the attached garage and apartment.
Harms said his wife, Cindy Ternes, was getting the children ready for school about 7 a.m. when she heard a popping sound. One of the kids came running from the hallway that separates the house and garage - and also contains a natural gas water heater and furnace - yelling that there was a fire.
Harms was still asleep in bed, having worked the night shift until 3 a.m. He awoke to his wife shaking him and yelling, "Fire! Fire!"
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Harms told her to get the kids out of the house and call 911. She handed him a fire extinguisher. He sprayed the flames swirling in the hallway, but the fire kept burning.
Once outside, he counted his children. One of the college students said her roommate was still inside the apartment. Harms ran inside and yelled for her to follow his voice until she found him.
A neighbor provided shelter for the family as more than 20 Dilworth and Moorhead firefighters battled the smoky blaze in temperatures that dipped to minus 24 degrees.
"It's been tough," Dilworth Fire Chief Kurt Kennedy said after crews got the fire under control. "They're freezing hands and their equipment's freezing up that's wet, that's hard to move."
The cause of the fire wasn't immediately known, Kennedy said. Harms said he believes it started in the hallway mechanical system, which supplied heat and hot water to the apartment unit.
The American Red Cross assisted with food, clothing and shelter. The family will spend the next few days in a motel as they sort things out with their insurance agent.
Harms said the heat from the fire cracked the ceiling and melted light fixtures in the family's living area. He didn't know if the family would be able to move back into the house, which sits across the street from Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton Junior High School.
The children were slightly shaken up, but they wanted to go to school, Harms said. They were mostly concerned about their pets: One cat was found, but the other was still missing Wednesday afternoon, Harms said. A pet hamster survived.
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Harms said he's had better days, but added, "I've had worse days, too." He and his wife lost a 4-year-old son in a drowning accident in 2005, he said.
"No one's hurt," he said. "It could be a lot worse. It's just stuff."
Harms said the support received from friends and family, co-workers, the school, their church, the Red Cross and the Salvation Army has been overwhelming.
"We're very blessed," he said.
Don Fiebiger, emergency service director for the Minn-Kota Chapter of the Red Cross, said periods of extreme cold typically bring more calls for assistance because of fires.
"I think it's more stress on wiring, and maybe people are using more heaters. I think it's just more stress on everything," he said.
Kennedy also said fire calls tend to increase slightly during periods of extreme cold.
"It's not a lot, but when it gets cold, everybody's cranking everything up and they can't keep their house warm enough," he said.
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Readers can reach Forum reporter Mike Nowatzki at (701) 241-5528
