No one was inside the home at the time of the blaze — a good thing since the home had no smoke detectors, Livonia Fire Marshal Earl Fesler said.
“We were lucky this wasn't at night,” he said. “If people had been sleeping, it could have been a lot worse.”
The homeowner, an older man who uses a wheelchair, reported the fire in the 9900 block of Auburndale at about 12:45 p.m. after returning from a short trip to the post office. His wife and another female resident of the home were both at work at the time, Fesler said.
The man saw smoke coming from the brick bungalow after pulling his vehicle into the backyard and called 9-1-1 from his cell phone inside his vehicle.
Flames were coming out of the windows when firefighters arrived, Fesler said. “There was a real good front door lock that took us a couple extra kicks to get in” so firefighters started attacking the fire through the windows.
Within about an hour, they were finished battling the blaze.
“It was textbook,” he said of the way the firefighters worked. “They did a really good job. I can tell by our guys with the training, there's no guess work. I can't be more proud of these Livonia firefighters.”
Fesler said the fire started in a first-floor bedroom, where the damage was extensive. There was smoke and water damage to the contents and rest of the interior. He said the residents lost a lot of valuables. Structural damage was minimal.
While the official cause is “undetermined,” Fesler said he suspects the fire started from an extension cord in the bedroom that had too many things plugged into it, including possibly Christmas lights.
He said the damage was so extensive, it was hard to tell what was plugged in and what wasn't. “You can tell the room probably got to 1,000 degrees in there,” he said.
He ruled the fire accidental.
Fesler advised residents not to overload extension cords or cover them up with a rug or other combustibles that can ignite when the cords overheat. He said the holidays are a time when people tend to overload extension cords.
By Karen Smith
