Four departments battle Edwardsburg house fire

Published 7:50 pm Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Firefighters from Edwardsburg, Niles Township, Howard Township and Clay Township battled a fully involved fire that destroyed a home in in Edwardsburg Wednesday afternoon.

Firefighters were called to the 69000 block of Sundance Drive just outside the Edwardsburg village limits around 4 p.m. Wednesday..

According to Alexis Kutz she was in the basement having a regular day with she learned about the fire.

“I heard my mom yelling, ‘oh my God. What’s going on?’” Kutz said. “So I went upstairs and saw a huge puff of smoke and that is when I started freaking out.”

Kutz said her mother saw the garage door was open and was concerned.

“What if the baby girl is in there because they have a young child?” Kutz said. “Me and my dad booked it over there and saw a fire in the garage, but it was pretty small at that point. He was trying to get the door open, but it was locked so I don’t think anyone was home.”

Neighbors called the fire department and the Ontwa Township-Edwardsburg Police Department arrived on the scene and told them to back away.

“Nobody was in the house except for the cat, which I don’t think made it out,” Kutz said. “We were going back to our house when the flames puffed up and took off.”

Kutz said that she heard at least two explosions.

“When we were standing in front of the house by the street, that is when we heard the first explosion,” Kutz said. “It sounded like it came from the garage. There were at least two.”

Fire trucks and tankers were delivering water to the scene on a regular basis until the fire was extinguished.

No cause is known at this time and the fire remains under investigation.