Pulling into her driveway around 7:45 p.m. on Oct. 11, Mariane Hoehn couldn’t figure out why the windows in her Becker Twp. home looked dirty; she had just washed them. Entering her walkout basement with the family dog, Mia, she discovered it full of smoke.

 

Hoehn looked over to the wood stove she and her husband, Andi, use to heat the house and discovered the stove pipe was burning red. Going back outside she looked up at the chimney and saw sparks. She knew right away it was a chimney fire.

 

Back inside the house she dialed 911, and while speaking with the operator noticed flames shooting out of the floor vent in the dining room. The chimney fire had turned into a house fire.

 

After getting Mia back out of the house, Hoehn went outside to wait for emergency personnel and for Andi to make it home. 

 

First on scene was the Sherburne Co. Sheriff, followed by more sheriff vehicles, an ambulance and fire trucks from Becker and Clear Lake. At one point 14 emergency vehicles were lined up and down both sides of Co. Road 23.

 

“It was Fire Prevention Week,” said Hoehn. “And that Thursday was training for the Becker Fire Dept., so all the firefighters came.”

 

“We’d been training earlier in the day and were at the fire hall cleaning and getting ready for the open house,” said Becker Fire Chief Doug Kolbinger. “It made it easier in that we were all already there.”

 

The fire took around two and a half hours to extinguish. In all, the basement, dining room, kitchen and living room suffered fire and water damage; the entire house received extensive soot damage. Everything was covered in it; the walls, ceilings and most of their possessions. They were informed they couldn’t even keep their canned goods.

 

That evening they stayed at a relative’s house, after that they moved into a motel in Becker. 

 

The long process of cleaning, restoring and rebuilding began this past week after the insurance adjuster spent two days inventorying the house and everything in it, and the fire marshal spent another day examining the destruction. 

 

Although much will need to be replaced, the Hoehns luckily didn’t lose many irreplaceable items; some family photos, a few antique pieces and a treasured curio cabinet were the worst of it. The couple has lived in the home since 1993 and raised two daughters there.

 

The Hoehns extended a thank you to the Becker Fire Dept., Clear Lake Fire Dept. and Farmers Insurance Co., all of whom they said had been great.

The couple hasn’t yet heard the total damage cost of the fire.