LUTSEN, MN – The length of the ongoing investigation into the February 2024 fire that burned Lutsen Resort to the ground does not bode well for the lodge’s owner, the rarely-heard-from Bryce Campbell, according to one of the nation’s top experts on arson.
“There’s a lot of red flags that jump out right away,” said Ed Nordskog, an internationally renowned fire investigator. “The (time of day) of the fire. The financial distress. And the biggest thing that jumps out at me, I mean, the single biggest thing, is the owner there at a time that doesn’t seem normal and in very close proximity to the fire being reported.”
Nordskog, who grew up in Grand Rapids, Minn., is a retired detective and arson expert who now lives in Los Angeles. He’s worked more than 2,000 cases during his years covering arson across the nation. He’s written eight books primarily focused on fire investigations and arson.
Due to the ongoing investigation, state officials and investigators in Minnesota continue to release very limited information regarding the Lutsen Resort fire, despite intense public demand and curiosity about the situation. That being the case, Nordskog shared insight with this reporter for an upcoming podcast into how an investigation like this works, and why it is likely taking so long. Interestingly enough, the duration of the investigation, which is about to enter its 19th month, tells part of the story.
“If the insurance company hasn’t settled yet, this leads me to believe they have a lot of information that could point to this being fraud,” Nordskog said. “Because insurance companies settle almost all the time, even when they know the owner might have involvement, but they just can’t prove it. Most insurance carriers can’t say, ‘Well, we think he did it, therefore we’re not going to pay him.’ That’s not good enough. They have to have some evidence that the owner is involved in fraud or the fire itself. And so that tells me a lot, that they have not settled.”
The investigation into the fire at Lutsen Resort is being led by the State Fire Marshal’s Office and the Minnesota Department of Commerce Fraud Bureau. Private investigators are also heavily involved in the situation. Repeated emails and requests for information from the agencies by this reporter have often resulted in blanket statements lacking specifics.
Just after midnight on Feb. 6, 2024, Lutsen Resort caught fire. The blaze obliterated the historic lodge. The investigation into the fire remains ongoing. In the aftermath of the devastation, Campbell has been the focus of intense scrutiny in the media and online forums. Campbell is also the centerpiece of multiple investigations led by state agencies, insurance companies, and private firms into his business dealings and his whereabouts the night of the fire. According to multiple sources familiar with the situation, including the resort’s former general manager, Edward Vanegas, and a separate individual involved with various aspects of the investigation into the fire, Campbell entered Lutsen Resort sometime late in the evening on the night of Feb. 5. This puts Campbell in the lodge less than an hour before the fire started.
The court of public opinion has not been gracious to Campbell after the fire. Within 48 hours of the blaze, news reports from some of the largest media outlets in Minnesota began to focus on unresolved fire code violations tied to Lutsen Resort. In addition to the violations, which were reported by the fire marshal, a bleak financial picture emerged for the resort. Campbell and Lutsen Resort owed money to businesses and individuals locally and beyond. The resort, according to public records, owed numerous contractors and architects for services provided. They were also behind on payments to the state for liquor taxes. Unpaid bills from contractors and townhome associations were mounting, and the possibility of not making payroll were all looming in the leadup to the fire.
That being the case, Nordskog said fire investigators don’t get fixated on a business being behind on finances, as many business owners struggle with cash flow and don’t burn down buildings as a result of it.
“Almost everybody’s behind in their finances or leveraged on their loans,” he said. “So we don’t get overly concerned by that.”
That being the case, as an investigation unfolds, particularly one that’s been going on for more than a year and a half, financial woes and where those fit in with an insurance claim would certainly be a piece of the puzzle if arson and fraud are possibilities.
When it comes to the practical side of the investigation into the fire that destroyed Lutsen Resort, or any similar fire, Nordskog said investigators start with a “scene investigation.”
“You get all this other information right away, and it’s background noise to us,” he said. “If the owner is behind in his (bills) or he owes people money, or the fact the fire is in the middle of the night, or the fact the owner was there not long before the fire started, it doesn’t mean anything to us if we don’t know what caused this fire.”
Nordskog described the incident at Lutsen Resort as being a “sizable fire with a lot of damage” and material for investigators to sort through.
“Our job is to figure out the cause of the fire as quickly as possible and try to establish where in the building this fire started. That’s first,” he said. “And then secondly, once we get to where it started, now we have to literally get on our hands and knees and search for days, if not a few weeks. And we sift the entire scene, and we’re looking for anything and everything, but we’re looking for what caused the fire.”
Fire investigators work diligently to pinpoint an exact spot where the fire started, which is quite difficult, and then look for something in that spot which could have caused the fire, Nordskog said. In the case of the Lutsen fire, investigators have questioned two former employees of the resort about a can of Rust-Oleum Rocksolid “wet look lacquer” that may have been located in the resort, according to information shared with this reporter for the upcoming podcast. Campbell, who agreed to be interviewed for the podcast, also mentioned an “accelerant” when discussing the 2024 fire at Lutsen Resort.
Nordskog said even with the likelihood that investigators are focused on an accelerant literally fueling the fire that destroyed the resort, they first need to eliminate the possibility that it was an accidental fire, a process that takes time.
“We have to screen out all potential accidental causes,” he said, “even if we find a gas leak, a fuel container, and a highway flare sitting there where we find that the fire started.”
Nordskog said it’s understandable that the court of public opinion widely speculates Campbell had something to do with the fire. That doesn’t make him guilty though, Nordskog said.
“Even if everybody understands what may have happened here, the investigators need to go through their process,” he said. “That’s how this works.”
The now-retired investigator took keen interest in the fire at Lutsen Resort. In addition to growing up in the northern part of the state, Nordskog and some of his friends visited Lutsen Resort in 1978 on prom night when he was in high school.
Nordskog spoke with this reporter for the upcoming podcast focused on the fire that burned the iconic Lutsen Resort to the ground. The podcast will be released in the coming months. It can currently be subscribed to (for free) on most podcast platforms under the title “The Lutsen Fire: A Podcast.”
