Sunday fire destroys buildings but not spirit
It was a nightmare come true Sunday morning as fire destroyed two businesses, gutted parts of another, and forever changed the appearance of downtown Rogers City. The blaze, which was noticed shortly after 7 a.m. by a Presque Isle County sheriff?s deputy beginning his shift, swept through the three-story Advance building and Big D.s Pizza in a mere couple of hours. Fire crews from across northern Michigan came from as far away as 45 to 60 miles fought hard to stop the fire?s path of destruction and were able to prevent further damage to The Painted Lady and continuing toward Plath?s Meats Inc. By the time the flames were knocked down and the final hot spots were out, Rogers City had lost a landmark building, a local family lost their only means of livelihood, and a businessman faced the prospect of a second fire rebuilding project in five years.
THE ADVANCE BUILDING, one of the most recognizable structures in Rogers City, and an anchor of the Third and Erie Street intersection, was left in ruin. The roof of the 19th Century structure collapsed, portions of the all-wood building spilled onto the Third Street sidewalk, while the middle section of the building warped and buckled from intense heat, sending debris into the eastbound lane of Erie Street. The roof of adjoining Big D?s business collapsed into the basement and burned for several hours. Structurally, there was nothing left standing after an excavator went through the site to make sure the fire was completely out and did not reignite. The second floor of The Painted Lady received significant heat and smoke damage.
FORMER ADVANCE publisher Harry Whiteley, who worked in the building for 24 years, always worried what a fire would do. When he got the call at 7:30 a.m., nothing could prepare him for the sight of flames coming from the upper floor. ?I looked down there and took a look, and the tears just started to come down. I just fell apart, emotionally. I could not believe it myself,? said Whiteley. Larry Morrison spent his entire 46-year working career as a master printer in the building, printing everything from stationery letter-head, raffle tickets, and historical books. He was sad to see his longtime place of employment go up in flames. ?I?m going to miss it,? Morrison said. ?There are a lot of memories and a good feelings in there. It?s all gone now. Just to see that old building go. It?s so much of my life.? Morrison had been working as a semi-retiree, working when the job warranted. The commercial equipment was in an area which received the most damage. Morrison had just spent the better part of Thursday repairing a machine, and had it back in operation Friday for a job to be completed on Monday.
The newspaper aspect of the business, even with the loss of all the computers, other equipment and supplies, continued at the J&L Camera Photo Studios less than a block away.
Publisher Richard Lamb borrowed a computer from Montmorency County Tribute publisher Tom Young, and Straitsland Resorter publisher L. Scott Swanson, used a laptop he had at home, and borrowed two more computers from friends and family to give the staff equipment to work on in the temporary location. Irreplaceable artifacts such as older bound copies of The Advance and bundles of specials publications were lost.
OWNER OF Big D?s Pizza Darrin Darga said the last couple of months had been good for his growing downtown business. ?We were seeing new people coming in the door almost everyday,? Darga said. ?The reason I do this is so my kids can have something. I feel as if I was watching my kids stuff go up in flames. Right now my fulltime job is to try and find a way to make a building so I can have a fulltime job again.? If there would have been more time, Darga would have saved a computer and some personal effects.
Sheriff deputy Darin Rabeau was the first person to notice smoke coming from the top front vent on the Third Street side of The Advance building. There also was smoke coming from the northwest corner eaves, he said. ?I looked inside of Darga?s and it was completely white,? said Rabeau. ?There was nothing wrong inside of The Advance. You could see all the way to the back, but inside Darga?s it was all white and it all was going up in the attic of The Advance.? More than one person had drove by the building minutes before 7 a.m. and did not notice anything out of the ordinary. Rabeau called Presque Isle County central dispatch when he heard a whoosh sound come from the buildings. With the fire departments on the way he went to check the Plath?s apartments to get people out.
ROGERS CITY fire chief Tim Luebke was starting his workday at Allied Ambulance and was the first the first to arrive. ?We could not actually tell where it had started at, because we had smoke coming out of both buildings at that point,? said Luebke. A heavy smoke extended into the alley and out across Lake Huron. A Moltke Township resident noticed the flames six miles away. The possibility of fighting a major structure fire at The Advance building is something that has been discussed for more than two decades by crews from the RCFD. ?We did some pre-plans about what the worst case scenario would be about how far it would travel,? said Luebke, ?Well, unfortunately, today we found out.? Fire fighters received an early break as the wind was coming out of the south, but soon the winds shifted, complicating situation. ?When I asked for a ladder from the city of Cheboygan, apparently Cheboygan County paged all departments in Cheboygan County,? said Luebke. ?We had a ladder truck show up from Mackinaw City, and at tanker and manpower from Wolverine.?
Luebke asked for assistance from Alpena at the same time he called Cheboygan and was told Rogers City was outside of their coverage area. The Cheboygan Fire Department arrived with an aerial ladder truck and immediately started spraying water on Big D?s, while a second ladder truck from Tuscarora Township in Cheboygan County aimed their water gun at the back portion of The Advance. ?I wish the outcome would have been better, but I am pleased that we did stop it before it went any further, and we had never worked with those departments before,? Luebke said.
NOW, FIRE investigators will sift through what is left to determine a cause and insurance adjusters will try and figure what the disaster will cost. Luebke believes the fire may have started between The Advance and Big D?s. ?It started more toward the center, between the two buildings,? Luebke said. We had nothing showing in the back and nothing showing in the front, it was coming up the center area, like around the chimney area. If you look at The Advance, the front part and the back part, there is damage, but it still is recognizable. The center is nearly obliterated.? Specialist Sgt. Dale Hardy form the Michigan State Police fire investigation unit out of Gaylord arrived early Monday afternoon to take pictures and interview the owners of The Advance and Big D?s. He said uncovering the cause could, if one is ever found, take time.
?It could be two days, just to dig things out, depending on weather,? Hardy said. ?The excavator has been in here and destroyed a bunch of the buildings. We have to dig through that to get to what we are looking for. ?We have to find out what kind of accidental causes we have. It could be electrical, we have an oven that is on
City crews were on the scene, setting up barricades and pouring salt on icy spots, while mayor Beach Hall and city manager John Bruning were visible during the blaze, offering their condolences to the owners and employees of the businesses. The Presque Isle County Red Cross responded and served donated beverages and food. Local police agencies also directed traffic and kept onlookers back.