A house fire in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, early on Saturday killed 37-year-old Jessi Pierce, a longtime correspondent for the NHL's Minnesota Wild, along with her three children, local fire officials said in a statement released on Monday.[1]
Pierce's children—Hudson, 8; Cayden, 6; and Avery, 4—were found deceased inside the single-family home, where bystanders reported seeing flames emerging from the roof. Her husband, Mike Hinrichs, was out of town on a work trip at the time.[1][2]
The White Bear Lake Fire Department stated that preliminary findings showed no evidence the fire was set intentionally, though the official cause remains under investigation. "We are in the very early stages of the investigation," the department said, adding that it is working with the Minnesota State Fire Marshal’s Office and dedicating all available resources.[1]
Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin described Pierce as a "ray of sunshine" and expressed devastation over the loss. "Words just can’t express how devastated we all are," Guerin said. "But ... we are all in the sports world and the hockey world, and we’re all in this together."[2]
Pierce had covered the Minnesota Wild for 10 seasons with NHL.com, and her work also appeared in The Athletic, B1G Ice Hockey blog, the Minnesota Hockey Journal and Massachusetts Hockey.[2]
Sources
- White Bear Lake Fire Department, "Press Release: House Fire Investigation Update", 2024 (publication date approximate based on Monday following Saturday incident), https://www.whitebearlake.org/departments/fire-department
- Minnesota Wild / NHL.com, "Team Statement on Jessi Pierce", 2024 (publication date approximate), https://www.nhl.com/wild