By ALEX PIAZZA and ART BUKOWSKI
Record-Eagle staff writers
GRAYLING — Two forest fires forced several area residents to flee their homes.
Fire engulfed an area dense with jack pine trees around 1:40 p.m. Tuesday near M-72 and M-18 in Crawford County's South Branch Township while a separate blaze erupted at nearby Camp Grayling in Kalkaska County's Bear Lake Township.
The Crawford County blaze destroyed a pole barn and nine other structures, authorities said. Fifteen homes were evacuated as a precautionary measure, said Mary Dettloff, Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment spokeswoman. She said the fire is mostly on federal land.
Evacuees were taken to Kirtland Community College in Roscommon. A Red Cross shelter was being opened at Resurrection Life Center in Grayling.
The Crawford County fire encompassed about 300 acres by Tuesday evening and continued growing.
The Kalkaska County blaze encompassed approximately 150 acres by Tuesday evening and also continued growing, Dettloff said. About 15 homes were evacuated in the path of that fire.
A massive blaze in April 2008 burned more than 1,300 acres and several buildings in Crawford County. Evidence of the fire still can be seen along I-75 just south of Grayling, and many at the time were worried the fire would engulf the city.
The 2008 fire totaled nearly $950,000 in damage and suppression costs, officials said.
Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox eventually filed criminal charges against a rail company for that fire. An engine run by Saginaw-based Lake State Railway Inc, threw sparks because it didn't have standard safety equipment, Cox' office alleged. Sparks from the engine allegedly caused the fire as it passed through the county, Cox said.
Considering that fire, residents were anxious to hear of a new blaze.
"I think people are pretty freaked out right now," said Sarah Harland, a worker at Spike's Keg 'O' Nails in Grayling. "It happened so shortly ago."
Harland and others were waiting for details of the fire Tuesday afternoon.
— The Associated Press contributed to this report.
