6 shops burned to the ground in Renaissance Festival fire

SHAKOPEE, Minn. — The Shakopee Fire Department shared more details about the Thursday fire that took down several buildings on the grounds of the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. 

During a live press conference on the festival grounds with burned rubble in the background, Shakopee Fire Chief Mike Nelson said calls reporting a large fire started coming in at 6:01 p.m., and his first engine was on the road one minute later. Fire crews began arriving at the Renaissance Festival grounds 14 minutes later and immediately encountered a large, multi-story row of commercial buildings on fire. 

Chief Nelson said a third alarm was quickly called to summon more engines and firefighters, and then a fourth to summon “water tenders,” or trucks that carry water, as there is no municipal water supply to the grounds. The tenders were emptied, and then had to shuttle eight miles away to be refilled. Nelson believes fire crews were pumping 1,000 gallons per minute in an effort to put the flames down. 

Fire crews immediately took a defensive posture in an attempt to keep the flames from jumping to additional buildings. At the height of activity, the chief says there were 86 firefighters from at least 10 nearby fire departments. 

Working with Renaissance Festival staff, fire officials determined 6 structures were lost in the fire but another 15 to 20 were saved. Investigators from the State Fire Marshal’s Office, the ATF and Shakopee Fire Department are working to determine what ignited the fire, but Chief Nelson says a lightning report from last night’s storm shows four lightning strikes occurred within a mile of the grounds, two of which were within half a mile. 

Renaissance Executive Director Stephanie Whipps says the structures will be rebuilt and be ready for the opening of the festival, which is just four months away. 

Dawn Kieninger owns New Pterodactyl Leather. She is one of three artisans who have lost their booths to the fire. 

“Someone called me at 8:30,” said Kieninger. “And said, well, I hope it’s a hoax, but it looks like maybe there’s a fire at the fair and it’s close to you.”

 Kieninger owns multiple booths across the country, but her love of the fairs started in Minnesota. She started in entertainment in 1981. She worked at other booths and eventually started her own.

“It’s like living in a small town that moves around the country,” said Kieninger. “You see the same people you see, and some of them you don’t see for six months, and then you meet up again.”

While officials are confident the section can be rebuilt and ready by August,  Kieninger said the future of that particular booth is uncertain for her.

“I have tried in the past to get property insurance,” she said. “Once you tell the insurance agents that you own a building and it sits vacant 10 months a year on someone else’s property. They’re not too anxious to ensure that.”

Kieninger has another booth at the fair, so either way, she expects to be back in August. She said many people have reached out to check on her.

“The community is so supportive,” she said.