Updated: Fire Starts at Minnetonka High Rise Thursday Morning

Minnetonka firefighters were busy Thursday morning putting out a two-alarm fire at a high rise condominium. 

Crews were dispatched to the Cloud 9 Sky Flats at 5601 Smetana Rd. in Minnetonka around 1:40 a.m after receiving a call about a fire on the second floor of the building.

Nobody suffered any injuries, but people living on floors one through four had to evacuate.

When firefighters first arrived, they saw heavy smoke coming from the second floor.

"We made entry and found a chair smoldering in the living room [of one of the units]," said Minnetonka Fire Chief Joe Wallin.

Firefighters were able to extinguish the chair in a matter of minutes, but had to spend more than an hour extracting the smoke.

"It was an overstuffed upholstered chair, and they smolder more than they burn," Wallin said.

But the smoke was enough to cause some residents to panic.

"You just don't know what to grab, you know you have to go, so you just grab what you can and you get the hell out," said Amelia Meyer, who lives across the hall from where the fire started.

When the alarm sounded, Meyer and her husband grabbed their three dogs — and two purses — and made their way toward the door.

"As soon as we opened the door, it was just full of smoke," Meyer said. "So we just ran toward the stairs and got outside as soon as we could."

Meyer said she's thankful because things could have turned out much worse.

Meanwhile, Chief Wallin said the fire caused an estimated $10,000 in smoke-related damage to the room where it originated, the hallway and an adjacent apartment.

According to Wallin, the building's fire system prevented the damage from being more widespread.

"The smoke extraction system and the alarms all functioned as designed. It made our job much easier," Wallin said. "High rise building fires can be very difficult, and this building's system worked very well."

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Update: 

When reached at 3 p.m. Thursday afternoon, the Minnetonka Fire Marshal said the fire was caused by a cigarette, or as the report will read: "a discarded smoking material."

Cloud 9 Sky Flats resident Amelia Meyer speculated shortly after being evacuated Thursday morning that a cigarette may have been the cause. At the time, she said "If it's due to careless smoking, then that's really irresponsible. In a community like this, 10 stories, you've got to be mindful of the people around you."