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None injured as fire in barrel expands to house

Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette Top: Flames can be seen as a member of the Chassell Volunteer Fire Department attempts to get another area of a fire at a log home at Sheriden Place under control.

PORTAGE TOWNSHIP — No injuries had been reported as of Wednesday afternoon from Tuesday fire that gutted a log home in Portage Township.

The fire at the Sheridan Place on U.S. 41 began in a burn barrel before spreading to a nearby wooden fence, storage shed, then finally a neighboring log home, the Houghton County Sheriff’s Office said in a release. The fire began approximately 4:10 p.m.

The log home was unoccupied at the time of the fire, the sheriff’s office said.

The Houghton County Sheriff’s Office reminds the public to check with the Department of Natural Resource’s Burn Permits Management System website before burning debris. The site, at www.dnr.state.mi.us/burnpermits, has a color-coded system indicating under what conditions burning is permitted. As of Wednesday afternoon, open debris burning was not permitted in Baraga, Gogebic, Houghton, Keweenaw or Ontonagon counties.

The sheriff’s office was assisted in the response to the fire by Michigan Technological University Public Safety, Houghton Police Department and the Michigan State Police Calumet Post.

Hurontown Fire and Rescue led the fire fighting effort. Assisting were the Houghton Fire Department, Hancock Fire Department, Chassell Fire Department, Stanton Township Fire Department’s Rapid Intervention Team (RIT), Mercy EMS and Red Cross Disaster Services.

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