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Dogs start fire that destroys Niles home
Published 10:45am Thursday, January 24, 2013A Niles home destroyed by fire Wednesday afternoon was the childhood home of Niles Charter Township Fire Chief Gary Brovold.
Firefighters responded to the two-story structure at 3009 S. Third St. owned by Kenneth and Kathryn Greer around 2:30 p.m.
Kathryn, who was home at the time of the fire, told Brovold a dog knocked a candle into a basket full of mismatched socks. Kathryn poured water on the basket and, thinking she had extinguished the fire, placed the basket in the kitchen and went about her business.
When she returned to the kitchen a short while later, the wall was on fire.
Brovold said knowing the home was an advantage for responding firefighters.
“Everyone was wondering, ‘how the heck does he know the layout?’ ” said Brovold, who lived in the house until his early 20s.
No one was injured and the family’s dogs escaped harm, but a cat died in the fire.
Brovold said knowing it was his former home didn’t affect him during the firefight.
That changed later when he called his mother.
“When she choked up I did, too,” he said.
The fire remains under investigation. Arson is not suspected at this time.
I hope that people who read this article will take one little piece of advice — Call The Fire Department First!! Before you even try to put it out yourself, call the firemen first. Last Autumn I was using my riding mower to chop maple leaves in my yard. At one point there were lots of leaves piled in front and around the mower. In an absolute fraction of a second I saw the tinyest spark jump from the mower engine to the leaves and in another fraction of a second the pile started to burn. I thought it wasn’t really bad so I took a bucket of water that I kept for the dog and poured it carefully over the leaves that were burning. I thought it was out but I decided to get another bucket of water just to be sure. My water source is around the other side of the house so I ambled back there and got another bucket of water. As I rounded the corner on the way back I was surprised to see that the leaves were burning even more. Well, after three more trips around the house for water and returning to see the leaves burning even more actively each time and finally engulfing my mower I decided, Hummm maybe I should call the fire department. When I did, they were there in less time than it took me to waddle around the house. The fireman used a portable extinguisher to put it out. A few minutes later I had 6 more firemen at the ready. The fire was out for sure, but my mower was DOA. So my advice is don’t so casually think that the fire is out because it may NOT be! I just lost a lawn mower, these people lost their home and a pet. So very sorry for your loss.