The Place Where Ludington Talks
Ludington Applebee's Destroyed by Fire
Terrible news for those who work and regularly eat there, but Ludington Applebee's Restaurant caught fire in the middle of the night and has burnt down. Firefighters from PM, Ludington and Scottville battled the blaze, but it looks to be a total loss.
AMBER TWP. — Firefighters from Pere Marquette and Ludington fire departments were dispatched to Applebee’s restaurant on West U.S. 10-31 just after 4 a.m. for a report of heavy smoke coming from the building. Ludington Fire Chief Jerry Funk was first on scene and confirmed the fire, which
appears to have started in the southeast side of the restaurant’s kitchen.
Ariel (Editor's Note: Aerial, not Courtland) trucks from both departments were set up but flames continued to spread throughout the building. Scottville Fire Department, Life EMS and West Shore Chapter of American Red Cross were also called in.
Temperatures hovering just above zero have caused challenges for the firefighters. PM’s ladder truck initially had a frozen valve while ice formed over the back parking lot, making conditions even more dangerous.
Over 50 people work at the restaurant, according to manager Matt Zwiegle. He said he was contacting the restaurant’s owners to find out the next step for the business.
A Michigan State Police fire marshal has been called in to investigate.
http://www.masoncountypress.com/2014/01/03/fire-destroys-applebees-...
Views: 1716
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by XLFD on
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Ironic twist: when Applebee's came to Ludington in the early part of this millennium, they requested and featured pictures of the Ludington Fire Department (and later the PM Fire Department) on their entry walls. These pictures, including at least one that I was in, were likely destroyed by the fire.
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An after picture of the southeastern part of Applebee's, where the most structural damage was:
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Permalink Reply by Dave on
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Apparently today is fire day... Fifth Third Ballpark just north of Grand Rapids, home of the West Michigan Whitecaps, is on fire.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2014/01/fifth_thir...
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For whatever reason, Fox News is covering this fire.. they had a brief mention of it last hour and will have something on it again shortly. Channel 8, WOOD TV, out off Grand Rapids is doing live coverage for the time being.
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The Fifth/Third Ballpark photo is from the same source Dave used in the article above it, which is why I didn't attribute it further.
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Permalink Reply by Willy on
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To bad for the owner and employees not to mention all the regular customers. X. When you were a firefighter wasn't it difficult to get the odor of burnt material out of your nose? To me the aftermath of a structural fire has a sickening smell.
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Sometimes the acrid smell of smoke lingers with you for a little while and the smell would sometimes infiltrate onto the clothes you wear under your turnout gear. In cold weather fires, you often get smoked phloem and mucus around your breathing passages even when you had breathing equipment (SCBA) on most of the time, just due to your proximity to the fire when you're there for hours.
When the temperatures very cold, and you're using a lot of water on a cooker like Applebee's was last night, you have ice forming on your gear and on the ground creating extra hazards. However, I always liked this type of weather for battling fires because you didn't sweat as much, and the extra hazards kept you focused.
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The big question, even bigger than what started this fire, is what will happen with this Applebee's franchise. Will it be rebuilt in the area, or not? Applebee's has 50 employees and whenever I went there, they were pretty busy. I hope they can quickly rebuild and rehire the workers that are at the least temporarily displaced from their jobs, and will have a hard time getting a replacement job like it in the middle of winter.
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I would think that they would rebuild assuming the building was properly insured and all. I'm not a big Applebee's fan myself but I know several people that liked going there... they seemed to have had a fairly loyal following so I'd be surprised it they were not up and running as soon as they possibly could be.
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Here's something else that may be of interest, and I am in the process of verifying my source's information, but the fire department had allegedly within a month ago responded to a call of smoke from Applebee's during their hours of operation, which turned out to be coming from their HVAC unit in the subroof area. The disposition of what happened after that regarding the PMFD and Applebee's is unknown at this time.
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