Close To Home

I was hoping that my Friday overnight would be uneventful and pass quickly. Well, wishing that just perked up the ears of the news gods and they quickly kiboshed that idea. As I was driving down the main road from my house, I heard the tones from Bainbridge Township fire department go off on my scanner

"Bainbridge Fire....report of a house on fire..8551 Tanglewood Trail...reports that it is fully engulfed."

I live six miles from Bainbridge and I have to pass through it to get to work. So I modestly floored it and drove cautiously over the unplowed roads. I got to the fire within five minutes. I got there before most of the fire and rescue vehicles. When I got out there were two firefighters, one cop, the assistant fire chief and me. The end condo was on fire. The last house in a unit of five.

The fire was just at the peak of the roof and it looked like it might be able to be doused pretty quickly. Well, that's when they discovered the only fire hydrant close enough was frozen solid. They had to call in other neighboring townships for water tankers and pumpers to get water flowing to fight it.



The lack of water made the fire fighting tricky and the best that they could do is keep the fire spreading to the adjacent condo units. They were successful in that endeavor but the end unit was a loss. Everyone was evacuated but the family lost their dog in the blaze.

I owned the story from start to finish. No other station had the fire and flames. Actually, no other station showed up. Even had the live shot all to ourselves.

Here's a link to the package they did on it for the 6 o'clock news that evening. I'm not sure how long the link will be up so try to catch it if you can.