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Tom Crann
St. Paul, Minn.

Fire marshal: Recent explosions, fires inline with seasonal trends

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Fires have been making a lot of headlines lately -- from the crude oil train near Casselton, N.D. ...

Bruce Crummy / AP

... to the deadly fire on Cedar Avenue on New Year's Day.

Hart Van Denburg / MPR News

Propane appears to be the cause of two recent fireballs we heard about this week -- one near the Bobcat manufacturing plant in Wahpeton yesterday and another near an apartment building in Rogers over the weekend. No one was hurt in either of those explosions.

MPR News' Tom Crann spoke with Minnesota Fire Marshal Bruce West about the uptick in fires in the region. He said that generally, when temperatures drop, the potential for fires goes up around the holidays when people cook more and as heating systems -- some of which need maintenance -- kick in.

West also said that the increase in volume of oil making its way across Minnesota from the Bakken oil patch in North Dakota is a concern.

"When you are going from a small amount to a large amount of crude going through a community ... a fire chief is going to have that awareness and they are going to be more concerned for their community ," West said.

Click on the audio player above to hear the full conversation.