Roof Venting Helps Confine Fire in Hotel
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Seminar Coordinator Macomb County Community College Warren, Mich.
Early roof ventilation and immediate action to confine fire spreading to upper floors through a pipe shaft saved a 110-year-old, four-story hotel in Mount Clemens, Mich.
In more recent years, a two-story bowling alley with 28 lanes had been added to the Clinton Gables Hotel. Both the hotel and the bowling alley were of ordinary construction and there was no sprinkler system.
The first report of the report of the fire to the Mount Clemens Fire Department was received by phone at 12:04 p.m. last Feb. 22.
The fire started in a pile of rags in a workroom off the bar area. It is believed that the rags contained a combustible liquid that had been used to clean pinsetting equipment. A short circuit arc was said to have been the ignition source. Employees discharged several portable extinguishers before notifying the fire department, according to fire officials.
Interior attack made
Two pumpers and an aerial were dispatched and an interior attack was made in the bar area with two 1 1/2 -inch lines at the seat of the fire. As smoke buildup was evident throughout the complex, Chief Charles Seehase of Mount Clemens ordered additional personnel into the rest of the building to check for both vertical and horizontal spread of fire. It was discovered that the fire had progressed up pipeways to the second and third stories above the bar. Lines were advanced up the inside stairway and ventilation was started on the roof.
Chief Nicholas Barsheff of the Harrison Township Fire Department reported to Seehase that the fire was spreading horizontally across the roof area of the third floor. At 12:43 p.m., a second alarm was ordered with a special call for the 90-foot aerial platform of the Clinton Township Fire Department.
The fire was knocked down at this time as efforts by fire fighters in the bar area kept the fire from extending into the bowling alley proper. The crew on the second floor held the fire to the area of the pipeshaft. Those on the third floor held at the fire wall while the third-floor fire was extinguished by the second-alarm aerial streams plus hand lines operating from both the ground and the roof of the bowling alley.
Photo by John M. Sternicki
The teams working inside used 90 30-minute air bottles in 34 self-contained breathing apparatus.
Second-alarm companies
Second-alarm companies responded from the Selfridge Air National Guard Base Department, as well as Clinton and Harrison Townships. In addition, the Chesterfield Township Fire Department covered the Mount Clemens Station and supplied SCBAs at the fire from their rescue squad, which responded on a special call. After the second alarm was struck, recruit fire fighters in their sixth week of basic training at the Macomb County Fire Training Institute in Sterling Heights were sent to the scene with their instructors to obtain fireground experience.
Two fire fighters were taken to the local hospital, one suffering from smoke inhalation and the other with a hip injury received in a fall from a ladder.
The bowling alleys were back in business on June 1 and damaged hotel sleeping rooms were being refurbished. The internal alarm system, which included both rate-of-rise and smoke detectors, has been upgraded and more pull-box stations have been installed to cover all bowling alley exits.
