MANKATO — The mother of two children who died in a fire early Monday in Mankato’s Lincoln Park neighborhood reportedly remains in a medically induced coma at Hennepin County Medical Center.
Deanna Lenzen escaped the blaze alive but two of her children, Aiden, 6, Annika, 1, did not. One adult male and Lenzen’s 9-year-old daughter, Jasmine, escaped.
It’s unclear whether Lenzen, who is receiving treatment in a hyperbaric chamber, is aware of the children’s fates.
In an interview with KARE-11 news Tuesday Keith Kittelson, Lenzen’s father and the children’s grandfather, said Lenzen ran into one of the duplex’s second-floor bedrooms to try to save Annika.
“When they pulled her out, she had the baby in her arms,” Kittelson told KARE-11. “That’s why she doesn’t know, and it’s going to be devastating.”
It is unclear when Lenzen will be removed from her treatment.
Meantime, the GoFundMe site set up by Cady Lucht, a longtime friend of Lenzen’s, has raised more than $6,600 since its launch (https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-deanna-after-tragic-house-fire).
“Trying to do everything in my power to help her out once she wakes up,” Lucht said on the GoFundMe site, “because her life as she knows it is now flipped upside down. For those who truly know Deanna, this is going to WRECK her. Recovering from the fire will be easy, but the devastation of losing two of her children will be awful.”
Firefighters were called at 2 a.m. Monday to 233 Bradley St. Fire had engulfed the rear of the structure’s second floor, which is where the children’s bedrooms were and likely where the fire started. The state fire marshal is investigating.