Road commission places blame on roofers for fire

LINCOLN - A catastrophic fire that destroyed the Alcona County Road Commission maintenance garage last fall is being blamed on roofers.

Videos, taken by passersby, reportedly showed the fire breaking out along a seam of vinyl roofing near a window, officials from the Michigan County Road Commission Insurance Pool told the commissioners at their meeting Wednesday. The meeting lasted four hours.

The fire broke out two days after the roofing project was completed.

"They are on notice and they have their own attorney," said Gayle Pratt, administrator for the Michigan County Road Commission Self-Insurance Pool.

She and Paul Aubin, investigator for Specialty Claims Services, attended the meeting to reassure the commissioners about money available for the replacement maintenance garage.

"We have it showing exactly where the fire started," Aubin said. "It's pretty incriminating."

Aubin said the investigation indicates a heat gun used to seam the vinyl coating may have ignited some embers, which smoldered until the fire broke out over the weekend. The county also lost all of the equipment in the garage, along with a brand new $200,000 dump truck that had just arrived.

Pratt said the roofing company has a $1 million umbrella policy to pay for damages, which they will sue to collect.

Meanwhile Pratt and Aubin assured the commissioners that if they build a replacement garage on the same site to serve the same use as the previous building, they will cover the replacement costs.

However, the insurance pool cannot cover the cost of environmental contamination, such as removal of two old concrete tanks that were full of drainage water. More than 200 tons of dirt around the tanks also has been removed so far, and is being hauled off to a landfill in Atlanta, road commission Managing Director Jesse Campbell said.

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Road commission places blame on roofers for fire