By David Fleet
Editor
Atlas Twp.-On Monday, several Lake Shinanguag area residents expressed concerns at the township board of trustees meeting regarding fire department response time and water supply following a recent lakeside house fire.
At about 10:30 p.m., June 12, fire departments from Atlas, Brandon, Davison, Grand Blanc and Groveland townships battled a blaze in the 10000 block of Dar Lane near M-15 on the northeast shore of Lake Shinanguag. The home was a total loss. Nearby residences to the north and south were evacuated and received extensive damage. There were no injuries and the fire remains under investigation by the Michigan State Fire Marshal.
Ed Zamanian has been a Lake Shinanguag resident since 1991. His home was a few yards from the burned home.
“We pay some of the highest taxes in the township,” said Zamanian to the board of trustees. “What I witnessed last Monday night was unacceptable—when the fire call goes out at 10:23 and the first responders are not there until ten (minutes) to eleven and they have no water? And they have no ability to get water up out of the lake? And they have to wait for the first pumper truck to come? By then it’s heart wrenching to watch my neighbor’s house go up completely in flames.”

“The only reason my house did not burn down was due to the construction,” continued Zamanian. “I have a concrete steel deck and my siding is Dryvit, otherwise my house would be gone. I don’t know why the initial call did not go to a bunch of different, capable fire departments. And why don’t we have something as simple as a five horsepower trash pump that it can get water up to the street from the lake?”
Zamanian said when the fire first started, he and the home’s owner were fighting it to no avail.
“In the future I’m going to have the ability to get the water out of the lake and encourage my neighbors to have the same capability,” he added.
Katie Zito lives on the other side of the burned structure.
“The firemen did an excellent job,” she told the board. “But they needed more equipment. They needed water. We live on a lake and I was getting upset because they could not take water out of the lake, which I still don’t understand, and I believe we have a fire hydrant on the other side of our neighborhood. I don’t know why they could not fill up water from that and bring it over. Once our neighbor’s house was pretty much gone, they kept water on my house and his (Zamanian’s) house. We finally got water brought in, but the firefighters were exhausted. They need more equipment to fight these fires.”
“I appreciate all you guys did,” she continued. “But I don’t understand why they could not use the (lake) water.”
Edward Klimek, is a township fire department captain and was the first firefighter on the scene.
“The times are incorrect— we did not go out at 10:23 and we did not get there at 10:50,” he told the board. “It was toned out at 10:32 and five minutes later it came on the radio it was fully involved. That’s two minutes after our trucks were already en route. We got there three minutes later. I did a size up and told my guys, ‘This house is gone. We are not saving it. We have to protect the houses on each side.’ We instantly started putting water on them. Our progress was impeded, a little bit, by Edward here berating us and using obscenities with some of my firefighters. In my 21 years on the department this was the hottest fire I’ve ever had to deal with, my guys had a heck of a time, guys were throwing up from the heat. Several times I had to drop to my knees holding the fire hose due to the heat—it was so hot. My guys did an amazing job. I could not be more proud of them.”
Klimek provided pictures to board members demonstrating how close the homes are together on the lake shore.
“The fact the two homes are still standing proves my guys did their job,” he said.
“We had no issues bringing water to the fire,” he said. “The guys were going to the fire hall (in Goodrich). Chief instantly called Davison, Brandon, Groveland and Grand Blanc fire departments. We had trucks lined up in the street. The reason we didn’t go to that dry hydrant was we had several problems with traffic. People were pulling in there to gawk, we could not get it.”
Klimek said once a truck is hooked up to the dry hydrant it must remain dedicated to pump water to other trucks.
“It’s faster to go to the station to get water, my guys risked their lives to save two houses,” he said. “It was a total of nine hours. We did all that we could.”
Fred Forys, township fire chief, said every fire truck in the fire hall is full when it leaves.
“The dry hydrant on Gale Lake has been out of service for 10 or 15 years,” said Forys. “It sucks mud and they tried to rebuild it. They called an expert in 15 years ago to fix it.”
John Feldmann, township firefighter, was the engineer on the second truck on the scene.
“I brought a crew of six people and 3,000 gallons of water,” he told the board. “I was the truck in front of the residence. I pumped water onto the fire for about two-and-a-half hours. I was averaging about 600 gallons a minute. I was draining the porta tank about every 5 minutes. At no time did we show up without any water. We had water instantly.”
“The heat was absolutely intense— I was maybe 100 feet from the structure and it was blistering. I had to stay with the truck. I’ve never had anything like that in 35 years of fighting fires.”
Tere Onica, township supervisor, responded.
“What happened was terrible,” said Onica. “We are very sorry for your loss, and thrilled and thankful no one was injured, including our firefighters. People don’t realize how tough their (firefighters’) job is. It is under investigation. And there is always opportunity to learn and improve on what to do.”
Onica said it’s difficult to draft water off the lake.
“It’s a sucking hose and only 15 feet long—the firetruck has to get very close to the water,” she said. “It’s ( lake water) not accessible to their vehicles.”
“They saved your homes,” she said. “The fire department kept that fire from spreading and they should be commended for that. I don’t want to minimize your loss, but I want to tell you I have very high confidence in our fire department and the job they do and their dedication to the community. It’s unfortunate we do have a paid on-call fire department and 80 percent of the fire departments in the state are paid on-call. These firefighters have families and other jobs.”
Pat Major, township trustee, lives on the south end of Lake Shinanguag.
Major asked if there was ever a time when one fire truck tanker was dry and the other tanker was not yet there.
“They had them lined up—the street was full,” responded Capt. Klimek. “I talked to the water officer who said they never had a truck that was not there (with water.)”
“So getting water out of the lake would not have helped,” replied Major. “There was water there and in tankers.”