Wright County Man Arrested in Connection to Deadly House Fire

(KNSI) — A Wright County man is charged in connection to a deadly house fire in Chisago County Sunday morning.

According to the criminal complaint, firefighters responded to the blaze at about 3:30 Sunday morning at a home in Fish Lake Township. They found a man outside the house, identified as 69-year-old Charles Stene, rolling around on the ground outside the house and wrapped in a blanket. He told officers that 34-year-old Dallas Evenstad “threw gas on me and lit me up.” Stene was burned over most of his body and airlifted from the scene to Hennepin County Medical Center, where he died Sunday afternoon. Amy Nord was in bed next to Stene. She told police she woke up and smelled gas and the sound of a man in the bedroom. She asked out loud if someone was dumping gas on them. She identified the man in the room as Evenstad and said he flicked a lighter and ran out of the house. Nord suffered second degree burns on her right hand and both feet and third degree burns on her legs. She was rushed to Regions Hospital, where the 41-year-old woman told investigators Evenstad, who lives in Albertville, had made threats against Stene’s daughter, who was not home at the time. His daughter told police Evenstad was familiar with the layout of the house.

Investigators in Crow Wing County say police were sent to an apartment in Crosby at about 5:00 that morning when a man said a shirtless Evenstad knocked on his door and “asked if he could crash there for a while.”

Court papers say Evenstad was arrested a short time later when deputies found him near the building, and the car he was driving was reported stolen out of Waite Park. A search of the car revealed a lighter and a shirt that smelled like gas.

Evenstad has been charged with second degree murder, first degree assault, and first degree arson and is being held on $2 million unconditional bail. He is due back in court on June 22nd.

___