Blaze damages home

By DAN SCHNEIDER, DMG Writer
BALTIC — The quick action of a passerby stopped a minor roof fire from becoming a major fire Sunday.

Off-duty Houghton City Police Officer Marc Geborkoff was driving down Elsie Road at about 4 p.m. when he saw flames coming from Ralph Horvath’s house at 18325 Elsie Road. Geborkoff reported the fire, alerted the homeowner and climbed onto the roof to suppress the fire.

“He was driving by and notices the smoke and so I ran and got a ladder and realized I should get the hose out and by the time I got out he was up there already,” Horvath said. “By the time the fire department arrived we had at least kept it from spreading.”

He was glad Geborkoff happened by.

“If he hadn’t stopped, we could’ve easily lost the whole house,” Horvath said.

Brian Mayworm, president of Hurontown Fire Department, agreed Geborkoff arrived on the scene in the nick of time.

“The whole roof and everything was cedar so it was very fortunate it got caught when it did,” Mayworm said. “Another five minutes and that thing would have been totally engulfed, I think.”

South Range and Adams Township fire departments arrived on the scene first, then paged Hurontown when they discovered the fire, located just east of Baltic on Elsie Road, was in Hurontown’s jurisdiction. Mayworm said about 30 firefighters initially arrived at the scene, prepared to fight a full structure fire. He said Hurontown firefighters took over the fire and dismissed the other two departments.

Mayworm said Geborkoff did not leave a lot of work for the fire department.

“We pulled off some shingles off the roof to make sure, went through the attic with a thermal imaging camera, and pulled some shingles off and put some hot spots out,” Mayworm said. He said the roof fire was likely kindled by an errant hot ember from the house’s chimney.

Hurontown Fire and Rescue spent about an hour and a half on the scene.



Dan Schneider can be reached at dschneider@mininggazette.com