Flames engulf house near Rackham

Witnesses said flames “poured out” of the third-floor window of a house directly across from Rackham Auditorium last night.

Sixteen emergency vehicles blocked off Huron Street between N. Ingalls and Fletcher streets due to the fire. A man staying at The Bed and Breakfast on Campus, which is located near the scene, called 911 to report the fire at 9:35 p.m.

Ann Arbor Fire Dept. officials had not determined last night if the house, located at 917 Huron St., was occupied solely by students.

“The roof started burning down (and I) smelled something burning,” said Jeroem Van der eb, who made the first 911 call. “Yellow flames came out of the window.”

BRYAN MCLELLAN/Daily A firefighter from the Ann Arbor Fire Department helps extinguish a blaze last night at a house on Huron Street.

Van der eb said that police and fire vehicles arrived on the scene within three minutes of his call.

“They raised the ladder and chopped a hole in the roof,” said a woman who lives in a nearby apartment and did not wish to be named.

“One occupant in the building was outside at the time, and he was the only one home,” said John Schnur, the Ann Arbor Fire Dept. battalion chief on the scene.

AAFD officials said they did not know how the blaze began, but the incident is under investigation. There were no injuries reported.

Schnur said fire inspectors will enter the house tomorrow to examine the third floor area, where the fire started, in order to determine its cause.

“They’re (going to) have to interview the occupants, see what was in that area,” Schnur said.

Mark Griffiths, a Rackham student who lives on the first floor of the house, said that he saw flames coming from the top floor as he approached the house around 9:30 p.m.

Griffiths said he assumed it was safe to go inside the house since there were no flames on the first or second floors. “I walked inside and called the fire department, and I took my hard drive with all my work on it (back outside),” he said.

Griffiths said the house is “about 100 years old” and speculated that electrical wiring may have contributed to the cause of the fire.

When the blaze began, about 50 people gathered outside the house to watch all of the commotion.

“I heard the trucks and sirens,” said Ralph Beebe, a neighbor who witnessed the fire. “They sent some firemen in to check for occupants. There (were no residents inside) that came out.”

10-07-97