MINNEAPOLIS — The father of five children who died in a fire at a north Minneapolis duplex on Valentine’s Day said Wednesday that the unit had broken radiators and he had to use the oven and a space heater to compensate.

Troy Lewis said several of the electric baseboard heaters on the second and third floor of the duplex didn’t work, including the ones in his children’s bedrooms.

“They would always come down like little Egyptians with all their little clothes wrapped around them,” Lewis said. “You’d see their little face with in the clothes over their head, with runny noses.”

Lewis, who survived the fire with two of his children, said he repeatedly complained to his landlord but that the radiators were never fixed.

The landlord, Paul Bertelson, said Lewis never raised any concerns about the heat.

“We monthly are going around to our units and checking in, and I had no conversation with him in his tenancy about baseboard heaters not working,” Bertelson said.

Bertelson, whose company owns about 20 rental properties in Minneapolis, said a licensed electrician installed the heaters in 2009. A city inspection last year found no problems with the apartment’s heating system.

Investigators have been unable to pinpoint the cause of the blaze, but they believe it originated in the same area where a space heater was running.