LEFT: The Berkley Department of Public Safety fights a fire at a home on Prairie Avenue in Berkley May 29. RIGHT: A fire in Berkley destroyed the rear of a home May 29 on Prairie Avenue.
By: Mike Koury | Woodward Talk | Published June 2, 2026
BERKLEY — A home in Berkley last Friday caught on fire, destroying a section of the house.
The Berkley Public Safety Department responded to the house fire at 3:39 p.m. May 29 in the 3700 block of Prairie Avenue, which is near 12 Mile and Greenfield roads.
The fire was located at the rear of the house, according to Berkley Detective Lt. Andrew Hadfield. The majority of the blaze was put out within minutes of the Public Safety Department’s personnel arriving on the scene, but a significant amount of damage occurred to the main afflicted area.
“There’s a heavy flame that was coming up the backside of the house that’s been extinguished, and now you’re looking for the small little spots of fire that haven’t been put out yet,” Hadfield said. “In this case, it had gone into the attic. So, we had to open up a ceiling in the room to get into the attic to put that out.”
After the initial fire was extinguished, Public Safety Department personnel spent the next hour checking for spots around the property, specifically in the interior of the home, to make sure no small fires existed.
“The initial knockdown (of the fire) was kind of getting let’s say 90% of it done, and then you’re searching for the small little areas that’s moved into it, and it moved into the attic,” Hadfield said.
The cause of the fire has yet to be determined and is under investigation.
The owners were at the house at the time of the fire but were able to get out and call authorities. No one was injured as a result, but the home will be uninhabitable for a while.
“They’ll have to obviously get the repairs done to the roof, and then to the structure itself, and then obviously the cleanup,” Hadfield said. “So, they’ll be out of it for a while.”