Any fire is a tragedy, St. Paul’s fire marshal said, but the one that tore through a Cathedral Hill home on Tuesday was even more so: It gutted a stately mid-1800s mansion that the current owners had meticulously restored.

Two cats died in the fire, but no other injuries were reported. The home — owned for more than four decades by a couple in their 70s — was extensively damaged.

“They put a lot of heart and soul into” the home, said Alida Purmalietis, whose parents own the home at 251 Dayton Ave. “It’s a devastating fire.”

Firefighters were called to a “very, very large house on fire” across from the Cathedral of St. Paul at 11:34 a.m. Tuesday, said St. Paul Fire Marshal Steve Zaccard.

Extra crews were needed and about 60 firefighters responded. Smoke was visible from miles away.

The fire apparently started on the three-story home’s second floor, which was full of flames. Firefighters were instructed to leave the house and attack the blaze from outside due to the fire being so heavy and the deteriorating structural conditions, according to Zaccard. Related Articles September 20, 2020 As memories of George Floyd fade, activists make sure his legacy does not

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Later, crews went back inside but had to retreat a second time because of dangerous conditions as “the fire raged out of control,” according to Zaccard.

With the help of a lot of water, firefighters managed to extinguish much of the fire. Then they went inside to continue to fight hot spots.

“It’s being real stubborn,” Zaccard said Tuesday afternoon. “It’s a big house and it’s got a lot of hollow walls that the fire’s hiding in, so the firefighters are mounting an attack on that fire from the inside again.”

Part of the roof collapsed and the second floor fell into the first floor, said Zaccard, who described the damage to the home as extensive. The fire’s cause is under investigation but Zaccard said its origins don’t appear to be suspicious.

The owners and several other family members were home at the time but escaped unharmed.

Purmalietis grew up in the house, which her parents, Maris and Norma Purmalietis, purchased in 1975, when the historic Cathedral Hill neighborhood was beginning to emerge from a long decline that followed World War II and a population shift to the suburbs. Maris, a retired carpenter, hand-carved designs into the woodwork.

“My dad spent his whole life working on this place,” Alida Purmalietis said. “There’s a lot of history. The woodwork was irreplaceable.”

Dana Aughenbaugh, who is dating the owners’ granddaughter, woke up to a commotion outside their room on the second level, where the family lived, besides Maris, whose bedroom was in the basement. Aughenbaugh and his girlfriend quickly got dressed and helped Norma down the stairs along with her two other grandchildren and her son.

Three renters lived on the third floor and weren’t home when the fire started. They were also displaced.

According to Ramsey County property records, the 7,214-square-foot house has an estimated market value of nearly $564,000.

The home was built in 1864 during the Civil War, “which makes it rare in itself because you can count on two hands the 1860s houses in this city,” said Jim Sazevich, a St. Paul historian.

The home, which is included in walking tours of Cathedral Hill, is known as the Lasher-Newel House. Stanford Newel (also spelled Newell in some places), an attorney who owned the home in the late 1800s, went on to become the U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands. A member of St. Paul’s first park board, Newell Park is named after him. Alpheus Lasher was the original owner of the house.

It was built of locally quarried limestone — “this is a piece of St. Paul, this is the bedrock from which the city stands on,” Sazevich said.

Sazevich’s apprentice, Chris Keith, said the molded oak was elaborate and showed extreme attention to detail.

“It’s probably one of the worst losses, architecturally, for Minnesota,” Keith added. “The woodwork was like a big piece of furniture. It was immaculate.”

The current owners are the longest residents of the house. It was used as a boarding house in the early 1900s, according to Sazevich.

“I’ve seen houses severely damaged that are rebuilt,” Sazevich said. “This is one house that’s worthy of being rebuilt as much as possible. … This is the type of house that attracts people to come up to this hill, this bluff, and really, really understand the whole scope, the whole context, of our architectural history. We have to go east to start finding houses of this caliber and they’re so rare here from our 1850s and ’60s.”

A fundraising page for the owners’ family has been established to help them cope with the aftermath of the fire. They’re staying at a nearby hotel.