4/15/2011 5:32:00 PM
SUMMER HOME of Timber Bay Lodge and Houseboats owners Ron and Beth Rykken burned Thursday morning. Five departments battled the blaze. Babbitt fire department photo.
Three fires: Timber Bay main lodge; grease in kitchen; electric sauna stove
by Nick Wognum...Ely Echo
Three fires in the area this past week each brought a degree of danger and could have been much worse. No lives were lost and no firefighters were injured and for that, three fire chiefs breathed a sigh of relief.
Babbitt firefighter Mike Jaeger was driving to work at Northshore Mine Thursday morning when he saw a black plume of smoke rising from the shore of Birch Lake.
Jaeger made two phone calls, the first to 911 and the second to fellow firefighter and Timber Bay Lodge owner Ron Rykken, according to Babbitt fire chief Ryan Scharber.
"As he was talking to Ron he could hear Ron's pager go off in the background," said Scharber.
The Rykken family has owned the resort for 25 years. Scharber said 10 days ago Ron Rykken began the process of moving his family back to the resort for the summer, starting with warming up the main lodge.
"He had two types of heat, a wood stove and an in-floor system with a propane heater," said Scharber. "I can't say for sure what happened. Ron turned on the heat 10 days ago, they were moving stuff in there slowly from their other house. He had the wood stove going the night before and we believe the furnace kicked on in the night. I guess all I can say is the fire started in the front portion inside by the front entrance."
The Babbitt fire department was dispatched at 5:32 a.m. and arrived on scene at 5:39 a.m.
"The main lodge was fully engulfed when we arrived. We found flames through the roof and a lot of the trees near the cabin were on fire," said Scharber. "Basically we took the truck on scene and foamed down the cabins on either side because there was a lot of embers in the air."
There was no chance of saving the 1949 structure, built by Richard "Dick" Niss and his brother, who started Timber Bay Lodge in 1947.
"When we arrived the building was already a total loss," said Scharber. "At first we brought water from Babbitt until we could get a portable pump system set up by the lake. The ice had receded so we were able to get a hose and strainer in the water."
The Babbitt fire department called for mutual aid, according to Scharber, with Ely, Morse-Fall Lake, Embarrass and Pike Sandy arriving to assist.
The Rykken family arrived shortly after the fire department.
"They were pretty upset at first but I think they realized things can be rebuilt," said Scharber. "We gave Ron the day off. He showed up to take care of his family."
The fire departments worked together well and the flames were knocked down in an hour and a half, said Scharber. Babbitt stayed on the scene until 3 p.m., doing mop-up and waiting for the state fire marshal to arrive.
"We don't expect there was any foul play or arson," said Scharber. "It started in the front portion of the cabin facing the lake but the building was too heavily damaged to determine an official cause."
He said 17,000 to 19,000 gallons of water and 26 gallons of foam additive were used to battle the blaze. The Babbitt department had 22 people on the scene and there were another 35 to 40 from other departments.
The Ely fire department served as the Rapid Intervention Team (RIT) at the Timber Bay fire, according to chief Tom Erchull.
"RIT is for the rescue of a firefighter if a firefighter went down during an interior attack," said Erchull. "Your primary job is to be ready and to sit and wait and do nothing else. You have your airpacks on, hoses on the ground and you're ready to go. We called Babbitt for RIT when we had the kitchen fire."
On Monday night at 12:02 a.m. the Ely fire department was paged out to a grease fire at 14 West Chapman Street, a two-story, three apartment building owned by Milt Netzer.
"We found a kitchen full of black smoke from ceiling to floor," said Erchull. "The fire was contained to the kitchen, a little bit in the living room and smoke damage on the rest of the first floor."
Erchull said all occupants were out of the building when the fire department arrived. The cause of the fire was grease that overheated on the stove.
"I think they were cooking french fries and it just got too hot. They walked away for just a second and there it went," said Erchull.
The department's thermal imaging camera was used to identify hot spots in the walls and ceiling.
"It's amazing to see how much right above that kitchen got hot and how heat gets up and around holes cut just a little too big to run pipes through. That heat goes right up in the wall. It's just amazing how it shows up in a thermal imager. That thing is worth its weight in gold," said Erchull.
Eighteen firefighters were on scene for over three hours.
"We did have to dig into the bones of the structure to make sure there was no fire into other parts," said Erchull.
While Babbitt was called to be the RIT for the kitchen fire, Erchull said that role may go to Morse-Fall Lake in the future.
"I know (Morse chief) Ted Krueger is interested in getting in on it too," said Erchull.
The Morse-Fall Lake department's pumper was on scene at the Timber Bay fire. The day before, Morse-Fall Lake responded to a sauna fire at 1460 Highway 1 at 5:22 p.m.
"The homeowner was able to contain the fire with a hose, thank God," said Krueger. "The fire department saved the garage within three feet of the sauna."
The fire started near the electric stove in the sauna. Krueger estimated damage to the structure at around $5,000.
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