To watch fire destroy his building once was hard enough for George Richard.
But now, it's happened twice.
"We had a fire here in February of last year and I spent most of last summer working on this place. Now I guess I get to do it again," says George.
George and his wife own the northeast Minneapolis duplex which is located on 17th Avenue NE. Last year they say a tenant dropped a cigarette and the whole building caught fire.
This morning, firefighters say it didn't take long for the duplex to go up again.
"Crews arrived with the fire showing on the first floor and it quickly traveled all the way through the building," says Dave Dewall with the Minneapolis Fire Department. "Did a good job of knocking down the fire from the first floor all the way up to the third floor."
Investigators believe Monday's fire started on the first floor. They don't know for certain yet how.
"As long as everybody's ok, it's stuff, stuff can be replaced. It's a massive inconvenience for the people that live here," says George Richard.
No one inside the duplex was hurt Monday. But a Minneapolis firefighter did break at least one finger after tripping over debris. He's going to be all right.
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