The Dilworth Fire Department was called shortly after 7:11 AM to respond to a house fire near the Dilworth Elementry School at 108 1st St. N.W.  The fire was reported at the home of a Minnesota State Patrol trooper Randy Harms and the department resonded quickly. Fire caused extensive damage to the Dilworth home as firefighters dealt with temperatures below minus 20 degrees. 

Randy Harms, his wife, five children and two upstairs tenants were able to escape the home uninjured.

Dilworth Fire Chief Kurt Kennedy commented that ”They were awoken to some kind of a noise or an explosion and they got everybody out immediately, went to the neighbors, and they yelled for the fire department.”

Moorhead firefighters were called to assist as the Dilworth Firefighters arrived to find smoke billowing from the house and quickly knocked down the flames, Kennedy said.

The cause of the fire was unknown, but it appears to have started in the basement, Kennedy said.

There was quite a bit of smoke damage, but the total extent of damage was not known after the blaze. 

The weather didn’t appear to slow down the more then twenty firefighters on the scene. “It’s been tough,” Kennedy said. “They’re freezing hands and their equipment’s freezing up that’s wet, that’s hard to move.”

The Salvation Army and Minn-Kota Chapter of the American Red Cross were on the scene to assist the family and firefighters.

The Red Cross provided food, clothing and shelter to the Harms. The family will spend at least the next three nights in a motel as they meet with their insurance agent, said Don Fiebiger, emergency service director for the Red Cross.