St. Paul fire destroys building, displacing residents and reducing memories to rubble

Paige Mackedanz moved into her apartment five months ago. Now, the building doesn’t exist.

The 20-unit apartment building that caught fire Monday has already been demolished, leaving dozens of people displaced.

Mackedanz is an assistant director of college admissions at Concordia University in St. Paul. She helps students figure out what to do with their lives — but she never imagined she’d need help figuring out her own.

She lived in the apartment with her cat, Honey, but was at work when the fire started. She went home immediately when she got a text from her neighbor alerting her to the emergency.

“I just started screaming that my cat was inside and somebody needed to save him. And then, like, the longest five minutes of my life ensued, and then I saw this firefighter coming out in his full garb, carrying my cat in a crate,” she said.

Her cat is OK now, Mackedanz said, but not all of the animals in the building made it out. Residents said at least three cats died on Monday.

Firefighters were luckily able to rescue two pet rabbits.

The Department of Safety and Inspections deemed the building unsafe, so no one could collect their belongings before it was torn down. Many of the displaced residents stood nearby as their building and their belongings were razed, watching their sentimental objects crushed in the rubble.

Charlie Cullington had lived in the building since 2020 and saw a picture of his grandma still hanging on the wall as it was being torn down, while still dressed in his clothes from Monday.

“I found myself in this apartment over the years,” he said. “I think my true sense of style and how I want to live and how I want to have a home — I think that's what I experienced.”

Cullington doesn’t have renters’ insurance.

“It's one of those things you say you'll do tomorrow or the next day. You just don't, and it's on me,” Cullington said.

While Cullington was able to save his passport, memory boxes and other belongings, he’ll never get his home back.

“It's just one of those things you never think of. You don't want to think of maybe, like, death or something so catastrophic, but I really urge people to just think about that,” he said. “Think about, ‘Hey, what if my whole entire existence besides me goes away?’”

Family and friends have set up fundraisers for some of the tenants, including Cullington and Maddy Meyers, who has lived in the building since March.

“I have nothing, but I can start getting some things back,” Meyers said. “I can't get back the most important items that are never going to be replaceable.”

Meyers was getting ready for work when she said she smelled something electrical burning. She left the building, not knowing it would be the last time she'd ever step foot in her home.

“I didn't even think to grab my purse, I didn't grab my laptop, because all of us just thought, ‘Oh, we're gonna be put out for a couple hours,’ and I just knew I should grab this just in case,” Meyers said.

Meyers was able to grab her cat, Colin, but she left behind memories of her cat Oliver, who died two years ago.

“He was the love of my life. I no longer have his paw prints, I no longer have any photos of him that were on my laptop. There's so many things: my sympathy cards from the vet, I have none of that,” she said.

Both Meyers and Mackedanz said many of the tenants met each other during the fire. They created a group chat shortly after.

Katie Ribas Sanchez, a senior at St. Catherine University, had only lived in her home for a month and a half. She said she recently cleaned her apartment and settled into it over the weekend. It was her first time living on her own.

“I was doing my homework and I lit candles, and I actually danced around my apartment. And I just sat and soaked everything in and I was like, ‘Wow, this is my life one year ago,’” Ribas Sanchez said. “I wished for what I had, and I had it, and then I watched it burn out. But now I get to do it again, and it's easier the second time, they say, when you go through something.”

Ribas Sanchez thought she’d bought insurance but discovered Monday evening after the fire that she hadn’t set it up correctly. She also totaled her car last week.

She said St. Kate’s opened up a dorm room for her, and she plans to stay there and work as she figures out her next steps.

“From all the conversations I've had with everyone, they would trade any of the money just to get that one thing that means the most to them,” she said.

The investigation into the cause of the fire isn’t complete. A spokesperson with the St. Paul Fire Department said it was hampered because they couldn’t reenter the building.

• City of St. Paul gives award to man who saved runaway school bus
• Driver rescued after vehicle crashes into Lake Phalen in St. Paul
• Two killed in crash following law enforcement pursuit in St. Paul