Crews contain fire at Ridgedale Macy's

Firefighters quickly contained a fire at the Macy's store in Ridgedale Center on Tuesday morning, although the store was briefly evacuated.

Minnetonka Fire Chief John Vance said firefighters were called to the store a few minutes before 10 a.m. Vance said firefighters saw smoke and discovered fire in the walls above the roof. He says the fire wasn't large but was difficult for firefighters to reach.

"The problem was finally extinguishing it because there was so much metal to remove up on the roof," Vance said. "Our crews worked very hard and it took us over an hour to access all the areas the fires had spread to and cut it off."

Vance said the fire appeared to have been sparked by a welder's torch in an area that's under renovation.

Macy's and a nearby restaurant were briefly evacuated. Officials with the company said no one was hurt, and the existing store and merchandise weren't affected by the fire.

The Minnetonka Fire Department called in help from 10 other nearby fire departments to give firefighters a break from the cold weather.

"We had 14 degrees out with pretty heavy winds," Vance said. "We ended up calling up some more extra resources than we normally would so we could rotate our crews to make sure our crews were warming up and taking proper precautions from frostbite and exposure to the elements."

The rest of Ridgedale mall remained open.