Four dead in southern Minnesota house fire

One man and three children are dead after a house fire in the southern Minnesota city of Grand Meadow on Sunday morning. The Mower County Sheriff’s Office confirmed on Monday afternoon that the children were all boys, but authorities did not release further information on their identities or the cause of their deaths. Firefighters and paramedics were called to the house on 1st Street N.W. shortly before 11:30 a.m. Sunday. Smoke was coming from the home. The fire and deaths are still under investigation “pending further forensic analysis,” according to Mower County Sheriff Steve Sandvik. Advertisement “The nature of this tragic incident occurring in the close-knit small community has touched all parts of the community,” Sandvik wrote in a statement. Grand Meadow is a city of more than 1,100 people about 30 minutes southwest of Rochester and the same distance away from Austin.