Kitchen fire causes $100,000 in damage at Harbour Club Apts.

A kitchen fire at Harbour Club Apartments in Van Buren Township at about 6 p.m. June 24 caused an estimated $100,000 damage.
VBT Fire Marshal Dave McInally said a 19-year-old male had moved into a third-floor apartment just three days earlier and he was cooking with grease. He said he turned down the heat and ran down to let his girlfriend in, McInally said.
When he got back to the apartment the kitchen was on fire and full of smoke. He opened the doorwall to get rid of the smoke, which fed the fire, McInally said.
The apartment’s bedroom door was closed and he shut his apartment door when he left, so the fire was contained and went up the wall to the roof.
The apartments next to him were vacant and he got the other neighbors out. Nobody was displaced and nobody was injured, McInally said.
Ypsilanti Township was present for mutual aid. VBT used its ladder truck to get water to the roof, he said.
Belfor Property Restoration has a contract with Harbour Club and estimated the damage at $100,000. Insurance investigators will confirm the cause of the fire, McInally said.
McInally said this is the second fire in three weeks at Harbour Club and both were kitchen fires. He said there have been a number of other kitchen fires throughout the township lately.
McInally said this latest fire is a good example of the importance of keeping doors closed when you sleep. He said the fire department will be using pictures of the fire to emphasize the importance of keeping doors closed during a fire.
In this fire, because the bedroom door was closed, the tenant’s television did not melt, McInally said.