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A home in Berkley caught fire on Feb. 15, but the fire soon was put out by the Berkley Public Safety Department and other responding agencies.
Photo provided by the Berkley Public Safety Department
BERKLEY — A fire that ignited at a Berkley home last week soon was put out by members of the Berkley Public Safety Department.
The fire in the 3800 block of Oakshire Avenue, north of 12 Mile Road, was reported to the department at approximately 8:06 p.m. Feb. 15.
According to Detective Lt. Andrew Hadfield, the fire was caused by hot wood chips from a barbecue smoker that had been left in a garbage can.
“It was going up the entire back side of the house,” he said. “It started to come up and hit the roofline when officers pulled up.”
Firefighters from Oak Park, Beverly Hills and Huntington Woods were on the scene to assist with the blaze. The Public Safety Department reportedly was able to extinguish the fire “within seconds.”
“It was knocked down pretty quick,” Hadfield said. “The officers were able to get it knocked down but then have to search for the extension (of the fire) into the remainder of the house, which took another 30 minutes checking different hot spots through the roofline.”
The department said in a Feb. 15 Facebook post that “all are OK at this time.”
The damage caused by the fire was located in the back of the house. Hadfield said that the family living there should be able to return.
“Structurally, there’s some damage to one of the bedrooms when they were checking for the extension, but other than going through cleaning up, they should be able to return to the home,” he said. “It just needs some work to fix things up. … The goal is to get them back in as soon as possible, but I don’t currently know if they’re in there.”
As for the cause of the fire — in this case the hot wood chips — Hadfield stated they recommend people make sure the chips or anything used to start a fire is put out well and that no more smoke or heat is coming off them before they’re moved to a different type of container.
“In this circumstance, obviously they were still warm,” he said. “We just want to make sure, whether it’s burning coals or fireworks or anything that has been ignited, that just putting some water and walking away doesn’t guarantee that it’s out, and usually it’s best to leave it in a fire-safe container until you can ensure that it’s dropped its temperature down, there’s no more smoke and it’s not actively burning.”
