Firefighters investigate remains of a Mercedes Smart Two on Broomfield Road Saturday evening. The cause of the fire is unknown and the two passengers, Glea Cashen and David Line II, both escaped the car uninjured. Line said the flames grew up to about 10 feet. (Adam Niemi/Staff Photographer)

The cause of a car fire at about 6:30 p.m. Saturday on Broomfield Road is unknown.

Glea Cashen walked over to her friend David Line II and pointed at her burned, new car.

“It’s going to end up costing me about $500 to have him tow it away for me,” she said.

Cashen and Line, both Mount Pleasant residents, had seconds to escape from Cashen’s new Mercedes Smart Two before it caught fire just a few hundred feet east of the US-127 overpass.

“When it went, it went quick,” Line said.

Cashen said she bought the car a month ago and had put only 50 miles on it.

“The car wouldn’t let me shut it off, wouldn’t let me put it into park — the windshield wipers even came on,” she said.

They watched the flames grow for 15 minutes before firefighters arrived.

Line said all of the lights on the dashboard turned on. They both smelled smoke and saw flames coming from around the rear wheels as they exited the car.

The flames grew 8 to 10 feet as they waited for firefighters.

No one was home at the time of the fire and firefighters were able to rescue the family’s dog. Shepherd Tri-Township Fire Lt. Matt Mead said the fire was contained to mostly two rooms in the upstairs of the home.

Lt. Matt Mead of the Shepherd Tri-Township Fire Department walks with fellow Fire Fighters to the home belonging to Audrey Wittbrodt and her family, 3103 S. Summerton Road, which caught fire Thursday afternoon. (Photo by Sara Winkler/Assistant Photo Editor)

“It appears to have started in the attic,” Mead said. “The fire was mostly in the attic and there is a little water and smoke damage as well.”

Shepherd Tri-Township, Mount Pleasant and the Saginaw Chippewa Tribal fire departments reported to the fire.

“The fire wasn’t too intense,” said Shepherd firefighter Ben Bryant. “But there was definitely damage.”

Audrey Wittbrodt, who lives at the home with her children and husband, arrived at the scene after the fire started

Wittbrodt said they do have insurance on the home, which is about 100 years old. She said her dog is safe and doing fine.

“I’m fine — it could have been worse,” Wittbrodt said.

Firefighters from Shepherd Tri-Township, Mount Pleasant and the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe fire departments were called to the scene early Thursday afternoon in Chippewa Township.

No one was at the rental home at the time of the fire and the owner, John McDonald, was out of town.

“There was very extensive fire damage throughout the residence,” said Don Brown, Shepherd Tri-Township fire chief. “In the upstairs as well as down.”

He said the garage can be salvaged and that the west end of the home was not damaged as much as the rest of the residence.

Shauna Decker, a graduate student from Imlay City, stands at the doorway of her East Pickard Street home and watches as the Shepherd Tri-Township, Saginaw Chippewa Tribal and Mount Pleasant fire departments fight to extinguish a fire at a house across the street. "I came home 10 minutes ago. I have dogs, and I saw all the smoke, kind of freaked out and started speeding to get home," Decker said. "Fires kind of freak me out. My neighbor's house caught fire when I was younger, so I always make sure I unplug the coffee pot and stuff." (Sean Proctor/Staff Photographer)

Lola Schaffer watched across the road as the fire departments fought the fire.

“We just happened to look out the window and saw the smoke,” she said. “Then the trucks arrived, and then I saw big orange flames shooting out of the top of the roof.”

Next-door neighbor Kelly Norton also saw smoke, but thought it was just a car fire at first.

“I didn’t call 9-1-1 because by the time I saw the smoke I started to hear the sirens coming,” she said.

Brown said the departments use the same operating systems, making working together more effective.

“We’ve been making good headway,” he said. “All the different departments have been doing a good job to work together.”

Jackie Pego, who was renting out the home, arrived at the scene while the fire was still being extinguished but declined comment.

Mount Pleasant Fire Department Sgt. Michael Dunham said the fire, reported at about 6 p.m., was likely caused by a motor in the Central Energy Facility igniting wood chips used for the boiler.

Dunham said the situation was not dangerous because the fire was contained by the facility’s cement silo.

“What we’re trying to do is prevent this from burning most of the product up,” he said.

He said firefighters tried to extinguish the flames at the source, which was the easiest and fastest way, instead of trying to remove the wood chips from the silo.

Dunham said the MPFD responded to a similar scenario once before in the past.

There were about 15 to 20 feet of wood chips in the silo.

Campus police were present monitoring traffic on West Campus Drive while authorities dealt with the fire.

Watch cm-life.com for updates

Rod Hutson, assistant chief of the Millbrook-Rolland Township Fire Department, said the cause of the fire at 10875 Remus Road is unknown. An investigation was conducted by the Isabella County Fire Investigation Team.

Hutson said a  garage was also damaged by the flames.

A Rolland-Millbrook firefighter shovels through charred wreckage following a fire that destroyed a residential mobile home and garage at 10875 W. Remus Road Sunday night. The cause of the fire was unknown, but will be investigated. The home has been vacant since February, but the owners personal items were still inside and destroyed in the blaze. (Sean Proctor/Assistant Photo Editor)

“It was fully engulfed when we got here,” he said.

No one was injured, he said.

The property belonged to Larry and Barbara Carson. Their son, Norm Carson, said his parents are currently on vacation in Atlantic City, N.J. and had not lived in the house since February since taking up new residence in Caro.

Carson said he was notified over the phone about 11 p.m. that his parents’ property was on fire.

“We ran straight down here,” he said.

Within an hour of Carson getting the call, firefighters had most of the fire under control, it was completely extinguished by 1 a.m.

Carson’s wife, Tracey, said she was shocked when she first heard the news. She said it was the second fire her family has dealt with since April when her home burned down.

Mount Pleasant homeowner Shirley Corser lives across the road from where the fire took place.

“I was glad (the home) was empty,” she said. “I just couldn’t believe it.”

Deerfield and Wheatland Township fire departments assisted. Consumers Energy was on scene to turn off the gas.

These are two things that Gene Cranick learned recently.

Cranick was the owner of a home in Obion County, Tenn. that burned down because the local fire department would not put out the fire at his home.

At first, this might seem absurd, but the reason that the fire department refused to put out the fire was that Cranick’s home was in a rural area. Property in Obion County is covered by the South Fulton Fire Department, but only if homeowners choose to enroll in fire protection through South Fulton by paying a $75 fee. Cranick had not paid his fee, citing that he “thought they’d come out and put it out, even if you hadn’t paid your $75.”

Some claim this was a heartless and immoral thing for the fire department to do. But if someone fails to purchase home insurance until after an accident, would the insurance company be expected to cover the damages of the home? Of course not.

If the fire department responded to fires on property that had not paid the fee, where would the incentive be to pay? Nobody would pay the fee, and the fire department would go bankrupt and provide no coverage at all.

If people in the county felt everyone should be covered, they could have easily passed an amendment to the county charter that would contract the city’s fire department to cover the whole county and use taxes to cover the cost, but then nobody would have a choice in whether or not they wanted to pay the fee.

This scenario paralleled an issue that was raised in the recent health care debate.

Many Republicans said that the individual mandate to purchase insurance was a violation of the constitution, but this policy makes no sense fiscally when Congress has passed laws requiring hospitals to admit people with life threatening injuries.

If people chose not to purchase health insurance, what would happen when they came to the emergency room with life threatening injuries?

The same principle applies here. Either people must choose to pay a fee (whether directly as a $75 charge or indirectly through taxes) or suffer the consequences.

When people choose to “take the risk,” they need to be ready to face the consequences. If people are unhappy with this harsh reality, then steps can easily be taken to remove the freedom to choose and require people to purchase such things as rural fire protection.

But until these steps are taken, there is no legitimacy to complaints that the fire department policy is immoral. As harsh as it may sound, he must pay the consequences for taking that risk.

A curtain in the living area of Thorpe 312 caught fire and a window was knocked out during the incident. Mount Pleasant firefighters and the Central Michigan University Police Department were called to the scene at 5:56 p.m.

The fire appeared to have been started by an iHome system, but it was easily contained, CMU Police Officer Jeff Ballard said.

Police Chief Bill Yeagley said the fire was small and consisted of mostly smoke. No one was injured.

“The fire was already out when the Mount Pleasant Fire Department arrived and they mainly removed all the smoke,” Yeagley said.

Greenville freshman Tyler Reynolds, left, Flint freshman JaLohn Stewart, Greenville freshman Taylor Jensen and Greenville freshman Mike Sandtveit speak with Thorpe Residence Hall Director Ryan Phillips outside Thorpe Hall after a fire started in their third-floor bedroom. (Photo by Jeff Smith/Staff Photographer)

Flint freshman Jalohn Stewart, one of five students living in Thorpe 312, said he was in the other room when the fire began.

“We heard a big pop and then everything went out —the TV, lights, everything,” Stewart said. “Then smoke was everywhere.”

Stewart said the fire started in the right corner of the room’s living area.

Three of Stewart’s roommates were present at the time of the incident. The fifth roommate, Greenville freshman Nick Campbell, was home at the time.

“I walked in right as the popping sound was happening,” said Greenville freshman Tyler Reynolds.

Greenville freshman Taylor Jensen pulled the fire alarm and ran to inform the front desk.

Shawn Knight, a New Boston sophomore and third floor resident assistant, used the fire extinguisher to put out the flames.

“I was eating dinner and the alarm was already going off,” Knight said. “I ran upstairs to make sure people were leaving.”

The roommates evacuated with the remaining residents in the hall. Students returned to the building about 6:45 p.m.

The five Thorpe 312 residents are staying in a guest room until further notice.



The first call came to authorities at 7:49 p.m., said Central Michigan University Police Sgt. Christopher Pryor.

The fire was put out as soon as the fire department arrived.

“I saw flames shooting out of the front of the car,” said Frankenmuth junior Kraig Haubenstricker.

Haubenstricker said he noticed the smoke from the Music Building and was curious. When he got to the car, he called 9-1-1.

Haubenstricker said when the fire fighters arrived and sprayed the car there were still flames under the hood.

The accident closed down Preston Street from the Charles V. Park Library to Mission Street and opened up after the car had been towed by a local company, Pryor said.

Sgt. Michael Dunham of the Mount Pleasant Fire Department said when they arrived the car was engulfed in flames. They were able to put out the fire quickly, but there was a lot of smoke damage, which ruined the inside of the car, Dunham said.

“This particular car is completely destroyed,” he said.

The fire started and stayed mainly under the hood, Dunham said.

He does not know what caused the fire because there was too much damage done to the car.

No one was hurt during the accident, but there was damage done to a car directly adjacent to it, Dunham said.

“Things can be replaced, but people cannot,” Dunham said.

Grand Rapids junior Hilary Kavanaugh, the owner of the car, said she couldn’t prevent the fire.

“I think it’s unfortunate, but nothing I can do about it,” Kavanaugh said. “I got to take it as it comes.”