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The structure fire I had yesterday.
This is the first picture taken when we arrived on scene and it was with in 10 minutes of our 911 call.
A Petoskey-area family lost their home and a large portion of their business stock Thursday in a fire that investigators say may have been caused by refracted sunlight.
Firefighters from the Resort/Bear Creek Fire Department were called at about 1:15 p.m. to the Steve and Florence Hajek residence at 4589 Greenwood Church Road when Steve Hajek called 9-1-1 reporting a fire in the garage at the home.
The Hajeks own two Elsie’s Hallmark stores in Petoskey and Bear Creek Township.
Fire was already through a portion of the roof when the first firefighters arrived on the scene.
Resort/Bear Creek Fire Chief Al Welsheimer said firefighters were hampered in their efforts to put out the fire by high winds that fanned the flames.
He said it took firefighters, with help from the Petoskey, Harbor Springs, Alanson and Springvale fire departments, more than two hours to get the bulk of the fire extinguished. In all, fire crews were on the scene for more than nine hours.
The fire left very little of the house standing.
Welsheimer said Steve Hajek reported that the garage had been full of Christmas stock destined for the Hallmark stores. He told investigators that when he arrived back at the home from which he had been transporting products all day, he walked through the garage and into the house. He said a short time later he smelled smoke, returned to the garage and found a fire had started among the products near the opening to the south-facing garage. Hajek told investigators he tried to put the fire out using a fire extinguisher and a garden hose, then called 9-1-1 after he realized he couldn’t contain the fire.
Hajek told investigators that among the items in the garage were two defective snow globes that he had brought back from one of the stores.
Investigators believe that the fire may have started when sunlight streaming in through the open garage door was refracted through the snow globe(s) (similar to a magnifying glass) causing something, such as packing boxes, to catch fire. The high winds then likely accelerated the expansion of the fire, investigators believe.
The Hajeks had insurance on the home. The family’s two dogs were able to escape the fire safely. No injuries were reported.
The Emmet County Victim Services Unit also responded to the scene to provide assistance to the family.
Fire crews thanked McDonald’s, Glen’s North, Spicy Bob’s and the Bay View E-Z Mart for providing food and beverages while they were working at the scene of the fire.
http://www.firefighternation.com/photo/albums/greenwood-rd-structur...
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Dennis Brown on
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Wow thats the first for me to hear a snow globe to start a fire and Todd he said it was the first pic so we dont know what they had after that and by the look of the area it seems water had to be shuttel in
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Permalink Reply by T.J. on
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Our water supply was being set up at that time, the 2 lines you see is one 2 1/2 and 1 3/4 line. We eventualy had a ladder truck set up we had to call 8 tankers from 4 other departments to supply the ladder for that and stll at times it had to shut down.
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We called in the Michigan State Fire Marshall to assist use and even he said that this was the cause, and it's probably the first time for him too.
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T.J. i like to see more pics if you got them
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I'll post them up later, I dont have them with me right now, but here's a video from the fire.
http://www.petoskeynews.com/articles/2008/11/07/news/doc49144dab22f...
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wow good video Thanks
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Permalink Reply by David on
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I am not sure of the 13/4" lines. Do you have 2/1/2" lines, blitz fire, deck gun. If you are going to go defensive, maybe consider large water lines. This is just an observation based on the pictue and 3 individuals in the picture. You could have decked gun the entire front side very quickly if man power wan a issue.
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Water was our issue, we did end up going to a monitor but we needed a lot of water and that took a while to get to use and get it set up. That was a 2 1/2" line in the photo also.
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Permalink Reply by Tony P on
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"Fire was already through a portion of the roof when the first firefighters arrived on the scene." - never a good start.
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The second answer to this thread is from the OP, he stated there that water supply was the problem. Did you miss that bit?
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Permalink Reply by Mike Schlags (Captain Busy) Retd on
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The reported cause sounds fishy... No one got hurt but having your business inventory stored at your home and having a snow globe reflect light that started a fire... There's a lot of questions that have not been answered here...
- How much insurance did they have?
- When was the last time they made any changes to the policy?
- Have they always used their home to store stock?
- What's their financial status?
- Was the origin determined and did they sniff for hydrocarbons?
- Any breakers tripped in the panel?
Good news... everyone went home...
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