A firefighter climbs down a ladder as the roof of a house catches fire at 1515 Ridge Road in Superior Township on Tuesday.
Daniel Brenner I AnnArbor.com
- Previous story: Firefighters battle Superior Township mobile home blaze
Two people were taken to the hospital Tuesday evening following an escape from their burning mobile home in Superior Township.
The home in the 1515 block of Ridge Road suffered severe damage after a fire tore through it, at one point shooting flames about 10 feet into the air through a hole in the roof made by firefighters. The two residents, a man and a woman, appeared to be home at the time the fire broke out and escaped across the street.
Shortly after making it to safety, the man who lived at the home fell to the ground and was treated by Huron Valley Ambulance personnel who had responded to the scene. Witnesses said the man had suffered an apparent heart attack. The woman stayed at the man’s side for a long period of time before falling to the ground with a medical issue of her own, an apparent seizure.
Huron Valley Ambulance officials would not release the condition the residents were in or their ages, only saying they were taken to a local hospital. The woman appeared to be younger than the man and witnesses on scene said she was his daughter. Their names were not known as of Tuesday evening.
Neighbors Sheri King and Annemarie Villani were standing outside the home watching the blaze along with many other residents of the mobile home community. King said the woman had exited the home and blamed the fire on an unattended candle.
“She talked about a candle burning in the bathroom and her dad’s girlfriend left it burning,” King said.
Superior Township Fire Department Capt. Shaun Bach said the official cause of the fire was not known as of 6:30 p.m. Tuesday and the investigation into the fire had just begun. He had heard about the candle as well, but was not sure whether it was the cause of the fire.
Crews were dispatched to the scene just after 5 p.m. Tuesday and the majority of the flames were out by 5:45 p.m. However, a number of firefighters remained on scene afterward to stamp out any remaining sparks and to investigate.
Bach said the flames were mainly shooting out through the rear of the residence when crews arrived.
“They were pushing out through the rear of the unit and when we got in the fire was through the roof,” he said.
Firefighters from the Superior Township Fire Department responded, with Ypsilanti Township firefighters and Ann Arbor Township firefighters providing assistance through a mutual aid request. Huron Valley Ambulance crews remained on scene into the night to assist firefighters who were still working on the remnants of the fire.
The smoke from the fire was visible from at least a half mile away and thin, gray clouds poured from the burning structure into the twilight. At one point, firefighters tore a hole in the roof in an attempt to give the smoke another way to exit. A few seconds after a firefighter walked away from the hole, flames shot out of it, reaching 10 feet in the air above the roof. Witnesses reported smelling the pungent fumes from the fire a mile away.
Despite the heat from the blaze, the mobile homes on either side seemed to escape harm.
The residents of the mobile home owned a dog and it managed to survive, Villani said. She said it was surreal to leave the comfort of home to then look out and see smoke billowing into the air.
“You never think it’ll be you or it’ll happen to someone close to you, you know what I mean,” she said, adding, “I just wish her family and everyone of them luck, they’re in my prayers.”
Kyle Feldscher covers cops and courts for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kylefeldscher@annarbor.com or you can follow him on Twitter.