Fire damages 40 units at U-Lock-It self-storage facility

By Rosemary K. Otzman
Independent Editor
About 40 units were damaged by a fire that erupted Saturday after the U-Lock-It self-storage facility at 6130 Rawsonville Road closed for the day.
U-Lock-It site manager Geri Dockter said the business had closed at 3 p.m. and the fire was reported between 5 and 5:30 p.m.
Dockter said fire departments from Ypsilanti, Van Buren, and Augusta townships came out to battle the blaze.
Dockter said the maintenance man noticed the fire and called the fire department. Then, he called Dockter and she hurried right over.
She said there was a lot of smoke.
On Monday, the business was open, but people were not being let inside the yard.
Dockter said the Ypsilanti Township Fire Department is still investigating the cause of the fire.
U-Lock-It is independently owned and operated and was built by its current owner in 2001. Besides manager Dockter, Ryn Rupprecht is the site’s customer specialist and Don Kirschke maintains the yard and buildings.
Dockter said there are ten buildings on the site, with 40 units in nine of the buildings and 79 units in one, making 439 total units.
Contents are only covered by the renters’ own insurance and U-Lock-It does not offer insurance of any kind.
The units are generally used by people to store household items, but vehicles also are kept on the site.