GRFD: No injuries in fire at West Side home
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — No one was hurt in a house fire on Grand Rapids’ West Side that started on the porch, according to a battalion chief.
Firefighters with the Grand Rapids Fire Department were called to a home on Pettibone Avenue near Bridge Street around 5:48 p.m. for a porch fire. Crews arrived to see the porch “fully involved,” said GRFD battalion chief Capt. David Noorman.
“Our crews said the whole front porch area, they couldn’t see that front, first floor part of the house because of the flames. It was starting to wrap around the sides of the house,” he said.
Firefighters were able to stop the flames at the front of the house right away, land then it was a matter of getting ahead of the wind, Noorman said.
“It was a wind-blown fire. I heard gusts up to 16 miles an hour. And that’s what drives it into that house, you know, it’s right out of the west and this is a west-facing house,” he explained.
The home was separated into two units. An adult and a child who live in the bottom unit were home at the time. Noorman said another family member came home and spotted the flames before alerting the two people inside.
No one was hurt in the fire, Noorman said. The cause is still unknown, but GRFD investigators are looking into what may have started the fire.
A dog was taken out of the second floor of the home by firefighters. Crews are still looking for two cats who they believe may be hiding in the back of the house, Noorman said.
GRFD was still on scene fighting the fire around 6:40 p.m.
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