GRAND HAVEN, Mich.– Firefighters battled bitter cold temperatures as they worked to put out a multi garage fire in Grand Haven.
It started as a single garage fire behind a home, near the corner of S. 2nd Street and Howard Avenue around 2 a.m. Thursday. But firefighters said the winds pushed the flames onto two more nearby garages in the narrow alley.
Firefighters are used to some pretty intense conditions, but Thursday mornings multi-garage fire was harsh.
“The cold impacts fighting the fire in several ways,” explained Jeff Hawke, Director of Public Safety for the city of Grand Haven.
“The gear tends to freeze up. We had some air packs freezing up. The hose lines become difficult to manipulate. The hydrants are more difficult in the cold weather with the extreme temperatures.”
A big help came in the form of a big bus and some retired firefighters from Norton Shores. That gave firefighters a place to get warm as they rotated battling the fire.
Investigators spent most of the day looking into a cause of the fire. At this point, it’s been ruled as “undetermined.”
