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NEW ULM -- Fast action by neighbors extinguished a Sunday afternoon house fire on North Payne Street.
Steven Brown said he was outside grilling when I noticed an unusual smell in the air at about 3 p.m.
"I thought it was my grill at first," Brown said. "It was a weird smell, like burned metal. I went into my house and told my wife to call 911, then ran to the neighbor's house. He ran with me to the (Nina Lovell's) house," at 626 N. Payne.
"We could see black smoke. It smelled funny. She (Lovell) was outside and kept saying 'my house, my house," Brown said.
"I don't know the other guy's names but, the three of us filled a pot, garbage bin and a plastic bucket with water from her outside (water) spigot. We kept dousing the fire until it went out," Brown added. "It didn't take long, we had the fire out in minutes, before it got bigger, before the fire department got there."
New Ulm Fire Chief Paul Macho said nobody was injured in the fire that damaged a couple layers of siding on the house.
Three fire trucks and 21 firefighters arrived at the fire. they left about 25 minutes after the call was received at 3:08 p.m. March 8.