Fire consumes two buildings in Lake Linden
The two buildings on the corner of Calumet and Second Street are expected to be declared a total loss. Photo by Lily Venable.
Downtown Lake Linden smells of a large bonfire, but not the summer-fun kind.
At about 11 p.m. Sunday night, the Lake Linden Fire Department received the call of a burning 2-story building on Calumet and Second Street. Firefighters were out until 5 a.m. fighting the flames along with 7 other local departments.
Lake Linden Assistant Fire Chief Nick Meneguzzo said that he rested at home for about 45 minutes before getting paged out again in the late morning as the building continued to smolder.
Fire Chief Andrew Kotila says the department used dump tanks and water from the lake to douse the flames.
“We pulled water from the boat launch using tanker trucks and had a big swimming pool set up,” Kotila said. Kotila and Meneguzzo estimate they used about 600,000 gallons of water to stop the burning.
“The problem is the whole roof dropped, and there’s no way to get water to the parts smoldering below,” says Meneguzzo. “We’re currently bringing in machinery to get debris off the hot spots.”
Nearly 24 hours later, the building continues to emit a stream of smoke.
Meneguzzo said that it’s definitely the biggest fire he’s seen in a while, and that the 2-story building that once housed apartments, a dentist’s office, and a garage, is now a total loss. He predicts the entire building will have to be torn down.
Nobody was hurt in the fire as the residents were said to be out of town. On Friday, the Fire Marshall is expected to inspect the building’s remains in order to pinpoint the cause.
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