LOCAL

Friday fire in Cheboygan displaces four, injures one

Cheboygan Daily Tribune

When the fire department arrived on scene, the front of the apartment building on Sammons Street was fully engulfed, with the fire spreading rapidly.

EDITOR'S NOTE: One of the tenants in the house fire is an employee of The Tribune.

CHEBOYGAN — A fire Friday morning ripped through an apartment building, displacing four tenants with one being injured after he jumped out of the second story to escape the flames.

Cheboygan City Fire Department Chief Donald Dailey said his department, along with Cheboygan Life Support Systems Ambulance and available law were dispatched to the structure fire on Sammons Street just after 11:15 a.m. May 6. The building was nearly fully engulfed when the first firefighters arrived on the scene minutes after it was dispatched.

"The fire spread through the building very quickly," said Dailey.

The fire started in the front of the building and moved to the other apartments rapidly. Only two of the four tenants were home at the time of the fire and firefighters were able to get the downstairs neighbor out of the building safely.

One of the upstairs tenants, who also is an employee of The Tribune, broke out a window and jumped to safety, breaking his foot, as the staircase was already fully engulfed and couldn't be used.

Three fire departments worked together last Friday morning to extinguish a blaze at an apartment building in the City of Cheboygan that displaced four tenants and injured one, and catching the home next door on fire.

Dailey requested the Alverno Fire Department and the Inverness Fire Department to respond to the scene of the fire for mutual aid, manpower and tanker trucks. Tuscarora Township Fire Department also responded to the scene with its tanker truck, as well as establishing a hydrant to draw water to fight the fire at the Lincoln Avenue boat launch, refilling the trucks for the firefighters.

By having the other departments helping out to extinguish the fire, the firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze as quickly as possible, before it spread to more homes in the area.

"Our department greatly appreciates the help and cooperation from the other departments," said Dailey.

Fire crews were on the scene for over five hours, putting out the fire in the four apartments on Sammons Street. The building has been deemed to be a total loss due to the extent of the damage.

Cheboygan County Office of Emergency Management Director Jeremy Runstrom also responded to the scene to help in any way he could.

The house to the north of the fire also received some damage, melting a considerable amount of the siding on the south end of the home.

"The fire also got into that house's attic," said Dailey. "It was quickly extinguished, with mostly just some water damage on the inside of that home."

Cheboygan City Mayor Pro Tem Brett Mallory and his family live in the home to the south of the apartment complex. His family's home did not receive any damage from the fire.

"Things like this really make you thankful for the firemen," said Mallory. "Especially when it hits this close to home."

The fire department's had to use their aerial truck to put out the flames in the attic of the building, as well as get firefighters on the roof of the structure to help fully extinguish the blaze.

The cause of the fire has not been determined as of this time. The building has been deemed a total loss due to amount of damage from the fire, leaving the four tenants to seek other accommodations.

Members of the community have stepped up and started gathering donations to be given to the four tenants who lost everything in the fire, as well as several Go Fund Me pages having been set up.

Contact Features Writer Kortny Hahn at khahn1@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @khahnCDT.