Traverse City Record-Eagle

Archive: Friday

April 19, 2008

Lumber building destroyed in blaze

BY SHERI McWHIRTER

GAYLORD -- A second abandoned lumber building in Gaylord burned to the ground and an Elmira man is jailed on arson charges.

The former Gaylord Lumber building next to the railroad tracks, between Main and Mitchell streets in downtown Gaylord, was destroyed in Wednesday's fire.

Michael Scott Ayers, 24, faces illegal entry and arson charges and is held on a $10,000 bond at the Otsego County Jail in Gaylord.

This is the second former Gaylord-based lumber business to burn recently. The first was the former Carter Lumber Company store on March 31, the result of melting ice from the roof falling on the gas meter.

The first blaze was ruled accidental, said Tim Warren, fire chief for the Otsego County Fire Department.

That's not the case with the latest incident.

Firefighters already were battling a four-acre forest fire off of Krys Road in Otsego County when called around 6:10 p.m. Wednesday to the structure fire. It's been an empty building for about 15 years, Warren said.

"Kids are always running in and out of there, dinking around," he said.

No firefighters were injured while dousing the fire, which burned for a couple of hours and caused officials to re-route traffic in downtown Gaylord.

High winds made burning debris blow from the fire and ignite the roof of nearby St. Mary Cathedral School. The leaping fire burned a hole about three feet wide in the roof of the school building, Warren said.

"Some of the hot embers landed on the rubber roofing on the old high school," said Wayne Larson, maintenance supervisor for the school and church.

The school's roof is already repaired, but some water damage remains in a storage room, he said.

Wednesday's fire is not believed to be connected to the other former lumber building fire, said Joe FitzGerald, chief of the Gaylord Police Department, which investigated the scene with the Michigan State Police fire marshal.

Authorities were tipped off about who may have started the fire, FitzGerald said.

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