Fire Leaves 1,500 Displaced in St. Paul Skyline Tower Power Outage

An early Sunday morning fire on the 12th floor of St. Paul’s Skyline Tower forced the evacuation of about 1,500 residents after the blaze was quickly extinguished. Minutes later a failure in the building’s electrical system (reported as a high-capacity conductor/panel) triggered sprinklers on three floors and caused a complete power outage that disabled water, heat, fire suppression, alarms and all elevators. Because those critical systems were offline, the Department of Safety and Inspections revoked the building’s certificate of occupancy and deemed the high‑rise uninhabitable. The city coordinated with CommonBond Communities, the Salvation Army, Metro Transit and other agencies to carry out a floor-by-floor evacuation, assist more than 100 residents with medical needs, and secure temporary lodging for all tenants. Residents cannot return until utilities and safety systems are fully restored; Skyline Tower is a large affordable-housing high-rise (reported as 24–25 stories with roughly 504 units) and those needing help can call St. Paul’s Emergency Housing Support Line at 651-564-8570.