Hazardous materials team called in
"We noticed out the back door a big billow of smoke and we kind of thought it was coming from the post office there. So we rushed over to the post office to let them know. And we find out it's this building next store." Ben Labo was working on a construction job nearby when he and his fellow workers were forced to evacuate the area after smoke began billowing out of the old Mid Michigan Community Action Building located on west Fourth Street just before 8 o'clock this morning. "We saw a yellowish, orangish cloud of smoke, which definitely doesn't seem normal," says Labo. The Clare County Fire Department as well as the Surrey and Mount Pleasant Fire Departments were called in and instantly faced challenges. "But this building has so many roofs in it and it's just so hard to get to it and fight the fire. It's been attached onto so many times, you've got wall after wall, roof after roof. It's hard to fight a fire when you can't get to it," says Clare Fire Chief Doug Randle.
But it wasn't just firefighters who had to deal with a seemingly endless supply of smoke. Nearby residents were asked to leave and the evacuations didn't end there. In fact the fire was so bad, the Clare Post Office had to evacuate and take all of their mail with them. "We have assistance from several other offices to make deliveries today. We are also relocating the mail from the P.O. Boxes to the Doherty Hotel. As long as people have proper ID they can go there and pick up their P.O. Box mail," says Linda Woods, the Post Office Operations Manager. A hazardous material team from Isabella County was called to the scene due to concerns that the smoke coming from the burning building could be toxic. By 4 o'clock on Wednesday, the fire was reported under control and residents were allowed to return home. But the seach for the cause of the fire is just beginning.
