South State Street closed near downtown Ann Arbor due to early morning house fire
A fire gutted this home on South State Street early Saturday. Photo courtesy of Ron Gubry
Updated story: 2 in critical condition following blaze on South State Street in Ann Arbor
South State Street between Hoover and Packard in Ann Arbor was closed early today after a fire swept through a rental house near the University of Michigan's Central Campus, sending several residents to the hospital with burns.
The fire at 928 S. State St. was reported around 5 a.m., said Ann Arbor Assistant Fire Chief Greg Hollingsworth. When firefighters arrived, the whole front porch was on fire, and the fire had spread to the interior stairwell and the roof. The fire was extinguished before 8 a.m.
Hollingsworth said one resident came out of the house with her clothes on fire when firefighters arrived. Two people were rescued from the back of the house, two other people came out and one person jumped, he said. All were transported to the hospital for treatment but their conditions were not available by 8:40 a.m.
Hollingsworth said the fire remains under investigation. The initial call reported some sort of bag on the porch on fire, he said. Witnesses at the scene said the fire quickly spread from the porch to the rest of the house.
Earlier in the morning, crews were on the scene of a vehicle fire in the 900 block of Church Street. Hollingsworth said the call on that fire came in shortly before 2 a.m.
The car fire ended up involving three vehicles and also remains under investigation.
In total, about 35 Ann Arbor firefighters and six units were called out to help with both fires.
David Jesse contributed to this report.
Comments
Andy
Sat, Apr 3, 2010 : 7:16 p.m.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=917+Mary+St,+Ann+Arbor,+Washtenaw,+Michigan+48104&ll=42.268798,-83.731678&spn=0,359.966977&z=16&layer=c&cbll=42.270061,-83.740624&panoid=nECHxBki3lgSnVePPQtm3Q&cbp=12,269.35,,0,-2.78 is the house.
Tom Joad
Sat, Apr 3, 2010 : 6:19 p.m.
Cat, your brother is a hero. Thankfully he was able to alert the fire department. 5 30 am not very many people are up and about.
Cat
Sat, Apr 3, 2010 : 3:23 p.m.
My brother was the one who called the fire dept. cause he saw the porch was on fire when he was driving by. I hope they all recover quickly and they find out what started the blaze.
Psquiggy
Sat, Apr 3, 2010 : 1:29 p.m.
I lived in that house on State St. many years ago. It was maze-like with the interior stairway in the center of the house. I shudder to think what it was like trying to escape the flames.
Medicine Man
Sat, Apr 3, 2010 : 12:33 p.m.
@ B Master B- Google is not always spot on when it comes to mapping.. The house that burned is the second house north of Hoover on the west side of S State St.. Not sure the exact address matters much at this point but it is between the 900 and 1000 block of S State (between Packard and Hoover)..
b master b
Sat, Apr 3, 2010 : 11:53 a.m.
Is 928 S State the correct address? When you google or bing search it it shows 928 as in between two large apartment buildings however the picture on AA.com shows it between two other houses?
yourdad
Sat, Apr 3, 2010 : 11:45 a.m.
Hey Johnny... half mile is nothing to someone that walks around all night looking for trouble. If this turns into a fatal fire... and I really hope it doesn't, the families and friends of these young people will need a lot of support. Maybe the other landlords around town should take note of the living conditions that their tenants have, like smoke detectors (no mention in the article) and secondary escape routes.
prinzsbus
Sat, Apr 3, 2010 : 9:35 a.m.
maybe 35 with joining city fire fighters.. like Pittsfeild... Ann Arbor had 25 on duty and the city wants to take that down to under 18...
johnnya2
Sat, Apr 3, 2010 : 9:32 a.m.
I would hardly call that a similar area. They are about half mile away from each other, but I wouldn't call a car fire and house fire that far apart linked in any way. Last night was also prime fire spreading weather. Extremely dry and windy conditions probably contributed to the fires spreading. A cigarette not fully extinguished, or a bbq spark could easily have caused this to happen
AACity12
Sat, Apr 3, 2010 : 9:01 a.m.
I pray everyone is ok. With that being said whats up with this headline? 2 major fires one with people running out on fire, others jumping from windows and others being pulled out by firefighters. And the headline reads that the street is closed????
Wolverine3660
Sat, Apr 3, 2010 : 8:51 a.m.
I hope the victims recover. Good job, AAFD!!! And I hope the AAPD catch the arsonist, if there was one
a2grateful
Sat, Apr 3, 2010 : 8:44 a.m.
Hopefully, all occupants survived, and have a fast recovery. Two fires in a similar area seems suspicious. Three hours of firefighting depicts the complexity of the task... original house and occupants, surrounding houses and occupants... traffic control... crowd control... equipment utilization... Thanks to the firefighters... hopefully they emerged safely and uninjured!