Harms, is a member of the Minnesota State Patrol. Harms was advised the Dilworth Fire Department that he evacuated the home only to run back into the home quickly to warn a tenant living in an apartment above the garage. The family was awed by the large turnout at the breakfast benefit. The community center parking lot was full when the family arrived at 9:45 a.m., 15 minutes after the first flapjacks were served.

“What it’s been a lot of is people you don’t know who know someone you know,” he said. “There’s always a connection some way in a community like this.”

The benefit was sponsored by local Girl Scout and Cub Scout groups. The Girl Scout and Cub Scout members waited tables and poured coffee while taking in-kind donations from several local businesses. Attendance was large enough to require extra trips for breakfast reinforcements and other supplies.

Firefighters James Nash and Brad Giesinger, who lives four doors down from the Harms and responded to the fire call there, helped clean up as the event began to wind down after 1 p.m..

The turnout didn’t surprise either of them. Several other recent fundraisers have drawn large crowds as well, they said.

“I think we band together pretty tight,” Nash said.

The Harms family has been living in a house right next door to the home that was damaged. The neighboring owners were not using the home full-time.

He said they hope to rebuild on their lot and are shooting to be back in a new home by the end of the summer. In the meantime, their freezer is still loaded with donated food.

“There are a lot of people who really care a lot in this community,” Harms said

About 40 blocks of southern Wahpeton were evacuated as a precaution, as a thick path of toxic smoke bellowed out of the Industrial Plating Corp at 501 6th Avenue South.

The plant uses hydrochloric acid, sodium hydroxide and zinc to to chemically zinc-plate materials. Officials tested and confirmed that the chemicals had been diluted enough to not pose a risk to wildlife or the health of area residents. Residents were allowed back in there homes, but were asked to stay indoors and keep windows and doors shut as a temporary precaution.

The fire was reported by a Wahpeton police officer who spotted smoke about 2:30 AM near the municipal airport and trailed it back to the plant. The plant was not occupied when the fire started and a cause is not immediately known.

An electrical fire was reported several weeks ago acording to Second Assistant Fire Chief Don Klovstad.

Firefighters from Wahpeton, Dwight, ND and Breckenridge, MN were called to the seen. Several firefighters were required to first go through a decontamination procedure before visiting the local hospital after they had fell into the contaminated water. A Dwight firefighter recieved minor chemical burns to his feet, but was treated and back to the scene shortly thereafter.

The state’s fire marshal’s office will investigate the fire.

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.