text: Fire destroys Hudson Township home - schurz-petoskeynews
  September 24, 2005|By Steve Zucker, News-Review staff writer
  BOYNE FALLS - Fire officials are investigating what caused a fire that destroyed a home in Hudson Township late Thursday.
  Hudson Township fire chief Shawn Bauman said firefighters from his department, with mutual aid from the Boyne Valley Township and Melrose Township fire departments, were called to a home on Slashing Road at about 10:45 p.m. when a neighbor reported hearing one or more explosions and seeing the house on fire.
  Bauman said his department had been called to the home earlier in the day at about 3 p.m. when a gas company worker reported smoke coming from the eaves of the house. At that time firefighters found that a fire had been burning in the house, but that it had burned itself out from lack of oxygen, Bauman said.
  He said fire crews ventilated smoke from the house, made sure that charred areas were no longer hot and checked for fire in other areas of the house.
  Bauman said fire crews arranged to have both the gas and electrical services to the home turned off. The homeowner, who Bauman did not identify, was not home at the time of either fire.
  Bauman said he attributed the cause of the first fire to an apparent electrical problem in a dimmer switch.
  When fire crews were called back hours later, they found the building fully engulfed in flames. He said the fire and/or explosion caused the gas meter on the house to fail, allowing gas to escape and creating a "torch" effect on one end of the tri-level house.
  Gas company crews had to dig a trench to crimp off the gas line before firefighters could complete their work.
  The fire destroyed the house, but firefighters were able to save a nearby pole building that contained several vehicles.
  Firefighters were on the scene until about 2:30 a.m. today, Friday.
  Bauman said he has called in a Michigan State Police Fire Investigation Unit investigator to help him in determining the cause of the second fire.