Kitchen fire leaves home uninhabitable
May 24—TRAVERSE CITY — Fire that broke out in a Garfield Township home's kitchen left the house uninhabitable, and broke out when no one was home but the pets.
That's according to Grand Traverse Metro Fire Chief Paul Mackin, who said the cause was still under investigation as of Friday. The department responded after one of the family members that lived there called 911 at 7:54 p.m. Thursday.
No one was injured, and at least five of the six pets inside were safe thanks to the actions of the Traverse City High School senior who lives in the home on the 700 block of East South Airport Road.
Aurthur Sieting said he and a friend pulled up to the house after leaving a school event on the eve of his last day of class. He realized there was a fire inside after smelling, then seeing the smoke. After crawling in through his bedroom window, he saw how much smoke there was.
"As I tried to enter the house through the window, I was thinking there's a bunch of smoke, I can bat it out of the way and see what's actually going on," he said. "As soon as I enter my room, I realize there's no way in hell I'm getting in there."
Sieting said he opened as many doors as he could to get his family's four dogs and two cats outside. He also checked the lower-level room where his grandmother lives to ensure she wasn't there. All the while, he was on the phone with a dispatcher.
After opening the door from the garage into the house, Sieting said he saw the stove was on fire in the kitchen.
Law enforcement arrived, then some neighbors came by and helped move the pets into another garage out of harm's way, Sieting said. One of the cats was missing — Mackin said it was still unaccounted for as of Friday morning.
Sieting was "shaken up real bad," but otherwise OK, and agreed he'd probably retell the story many times to his classmates.
"I predict at least a billion," he said.
Mackin, citing a report, said firefighters put out the kitchen fire after about a half-hour with help from Traverse City and Peninsula Township fire departments.
Grand Traverse County Sheriff's deputies also directed traffic on South Airport Drive.
The road was closed for a time between Townline and Three Mile roads, according to a notice from Grand Traverse County Central Dispatch.
Mackin said the family was offered assistance in finding a place to stay.
"But I believe that ... one of their major concerns is their pets at this time," he said.
