Grosse Pointe Farms, Grosse Pointes

Country Club of Detroit suffers intense fire, maintenance building destroyed

GROSSE POINTE FARMS — Billowing whirls of thick black smoke and flames greeted emergency responders as they arrived on the scene of what would become a four-alarm blaze at a Country Club of Detroit maintenance building around 2 p.m. Aug. 27.

Farms Lt. Jack Patterson, who was in charge of the scene, said officer Frank Zielinski was the first to arrive and when he saw the amount of fire and smoke, he recommended going to a second alarm, quickly followed by a third alarm — to which Patterson readily agreed. Public safety officers from the Farms, Shores, City, Park and Woods, as well as firefighters from Harper Woods and Detroit, all came out to battle a blaze so fierce it took dozens of trained emergency personnel several hours and hundreds of gallons of water to extinguish.

It was all hands on deck, as everyone from public safety directors to a Shores dispatcher with emergency medical training came out to offer much-needed assistance.

A club member said the building that caught fire was once used as a stable for horses when the club offered polo. The club no longer has horses on the property, and in recent years the building has been used to house maintenance equipment.

Officers on the scene said they heard multiple explosions while battling the blaze, most likely caused by gas cans and gas-fueled lawn equipment and other vehicles stored inside.

Fortunately, Patterson said, no one was injured, although one of the Harper Woods firefighters strained his back.

With the still-fresh memory of a recent Detroit fire in which the wall of an empty building collapsed, trapping and badly injuring about a half-dozen firefighters, Patterson said he wasn’t sending anyone into this empty building.

“We can replace buildings,” Patterson said. “We can’t replace people.”

Complicating matters was extremely low water pressure on club grounds. Patterson said officers weren’t able to get enough pressure from the fire hydrant closest to the building, so they assembled 1,000 feet of line — contributed by the multiple departments on the scene — to extend out to the next closest hydrant, which also failed to yield enough pressure. They had to rely on their 750-gallon pumper truck, emptying its contents into the building, Patterson said. Detroit was also able to offer a pumper truck.

The blaze burned so intensely, it melted lights on the side of a Farms fire truck parked across from the building. As long as the lights still work, Patterson said, they’ll keep them as a sort of badge of honor.

The Salvation Army sent a truck filled with water, sports drinks and other cold beverages for officers working under the hot conditions.

Patterson said they don’t suspect that the fire was purposely set, but the cause hadn’t been determined at press time. He said Farms Fire Inspector Jim McMahon was investigating.

“We treat every fire as a potential crime scene,” Patterson explained.

Although a building directly behind the old stables sustained some damage, Patterson said, they were able to save it from being consumed by the blaze. Another building to the side of the main fire suffered cracked windows from the intense heat.

Because the fire took place in an area reserved for maintenance buildings, the main clubhouse was spared any potential damage. A wedding scheduled to take place in the historic clubhouse Friday night went on as scheduled.

A spokesperson for the club could not be reached for comment by press time.