Minneapolis Investigators were today trying to pinpoint the cause of a fire that gutted a building containing several apartments and an Irish pub, killing three adults and three children.

Friends and family feared the victims were a bartender and several of his girlfriend's relatives.

The blaze broke out early yesterday in one of six flats above McMahon's Pub, Assistant Minneapolis Fire Chief John Fruetel said.

Firefighters arrived shortly after 6am to find heavy flames and smoke pouring from the two-storey building, where the roof eventually collapsed.

The residential portion of the building was due for an inspection, Fire Marshal Bryan Tyner said.

Authorities found eight violations during a fire code inspection on March 15 on the building's commercial part. Among them, the pub's fire alarm system had not been tested in more than a year and there were not enough fire extinguishers, Tyner said.

The owners were given until March 30 to fix the problems. Tyner said his office had not yet gone back to see if changes had been made.

The Hennepin County medical examiner's office identified one of the victims today as Ann Gervais, 43, who died of smoke inhalation en route to hospital.

The bodies of two men and three children also were recovered from the building, city and fire officials said. Authorities said they did not expect to find more victims.

The medical examiner's office did not identify the other victims. But the bartender's girlfriend said her mother, her brother and his three young children had been visiting the bartender, Ryan Richner, on Thursday night. Richner lived in an apartment above the bar.

Champagne Gervais, 25, said her brother's car remained in the pub's parking lot.

"They were all beautiful people," she said before breaking down sobbing as she watched crews sift through the rubble.

Richner's mother, Denise Schmidt, said she spoke to the medical examiner's office and also believed her son was among the dead.

The Twin Cities chapter of the American Red Cross was helping eight adults and five children displaced by the fire, spokeswoman Carrie Carlson said. She said the group would put them up in a hotel for the weekend, help them replace medicines and provide food and clothing.