An overnight fire destroyed a storage shed at a Northern Michigan ski resort. It created a million dollars in damage, and a potentially hazardous mess.

A Shanty Creek Resorts employee plowing snow discovered the blaze around 6 a.m. and called 911. Crews from Bellaire, Mancelona and South Torch Lake all rushed over to the Antrim County building, but it was already gone by the time they arrived. They still had their work cut out for them.

"The fire marshal will look into it, but when buildings are gone this far, how do you tell what's where? It's gone," said Chris Dewey, the Bellaire Fire Chief.

A twisted pile of metal was all that was left of the Cedar River Golf Course Maintenance building. Inside it, more than a million dollars in equipment, according to resort management.

"We're assuming it was an electrical fire that started," said Brent Nelson, Chief Operating Officer of Shanty Creek Resorts. "I anything were to catch on fire, and gosh forbid anything does, this is probably the best thing for us this time of year because it does not affect or impact our operations whatsoever."

While business continued as usual for the resort and its guests, the fire crews were working hard to make sure the area was safe. About 50 firefighters spent hours putting out hotspots and pulling down steel. Besides the cold, there was another challenge for fire crews.

"The big problem here is we may have a hazmat situation with chemicals that they use on the golf course stored," said Dewey. "All the green areas around here are fertilizer, liquid fertilizer. We're waiting to get the sheets on that to see what we're dealing with here."

"We had some different products in the building that obviously caught on fire," said Nelson. "We came up to make sure everything was contained. We called A1 Sanitation immediately to have a hazmat crew come in and oversee this."

With clean up underway, crews took extra precautions. They washed down equipment, and watched out for their skin and clothing. Everyone was thankful the situation was under control, when it could have been much worse.

"We will live through this. Everybody does, and the main thing is everyone is safe," said Nelson. "Nobody got hurt. Buildings are replaceable."

Insurance will cover the loss and the resort is already talking to someone about rebuilding, according to Nelson.

The investigation into the cause continues.