— A detached garage and a camper on Oakland Beach Lane in Detroit Lakes were destroyed in a fire Saturday night, Aug. 29.
Crews were called to 25170 Oakland Beach Lane around 7:30 p.m., according to law enforcement call logs. They arrived to find the garage fully engulfed, with flames spreading to a nearby camper, according to Detroit Lakes Fire Department Chief Mike Hanson.
Damage from a fire that occurred on Oakland Beach Lane on Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, is pictured Monday, Aug. 31, 2026.
Abby Fostveit / Detroit Lakes Tribune
Firefighters from Detroit Lakes, with water-shuttling assistance from Audubon, Callaway and Frazee, first worked to protect the home on the property, where the exterior siding had begun to melt from the heat, before turning attention to the garage itself.
The fire was fully extinguished in about two hours, with crews then spending additional time on mop-up. During the incident, a power line came down, and utility crews were called in to secure it.
Both the detached garage and the camper were total losses, Hanson said. The main house sustained minor exterior siding damage, but no interior damage. No evacuations were needed, no one was living in the home at the time, and the fire remained contained to the property, Hanson said.
According to Hanson, the garage had no electrical power running to it, and the property had been undergoing repairs from earlier damage sustained from a tornado that touched down in the area in early July.
The cause remains under investigation. Hanson thanked the mutual aid departments for their help with water shuttling operations.
Abby Fostveit is a reporter and staff photographer for the Detroit Lakes Tribune and Perham Focus. Before moving to the area, Fostveit graduated with a degree in journalism and a minor in environmental studies from Butler University in Indianapolis in May 2024, where she also competed on the cross country and track and field teams as a middle-distance runner.