BRAINERD — Maintenance workers helped to keep a bad situation from becoming worse after a fire started in a downtown Brainerd building.

The Brainerd Fire Department responded to the multistory building fire at 10:56 a.m. Wednesday, June 4, on the 600 block of Front Street.

Brainerd Fire Chief Tim Holmes said workers for the property owner were in the building when they noticed the fire on the second floor. He said they called 911 and then began evacuating the residents of the building.

Puringer Investments' maintenance workers Jon Swanson and Summer Gallagher said they were in the building Wednesday morning when they noticed the lights in the vacant apartment they were working in started to flicker.

Thinking a fuse was going bad, Swanson said they went to check the panel and replace th

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