JACKSON, MI — A furnace malfunction may have caused a fire that engulfed a commercial building near Jackson Thursday afternoon, officials said.
At about 1:44 p.m., firefighters from the Blackman-Leoni Department of Public Safety responded to a structure fire in the 1600 block of West Ganson Street in Blackman Township, outside of Jackson.
Crews arrived to find smoke and flames coming from the roof of a commercial building, Blackman-Leoni director Scott Grajewski said in a news release.
The building is being built for a new business — known as the Leaf & Barrel Social Club — that is slated to open in summer 2023, officials said.
The roof collapsed as crews tried to fight the flames from inside the building, forcing firefighters to use arial streams to extinguish the remaining flames, Grajewski said.
The flames caused extensive damage to the building and the roof was completely destroyed, Grajewski said. The structure of the building is still intact.
No one was injured during the fire, Grajewski said.
During the fire, three people working in the building were inside and did not notice that the fire had spread. The three people were able to flee the building unharmed after someone saw the smoke and ran inside to tell them, Grajewski said.
The fire appeared to have started in the back corner of the structure where an oven was located, officials said. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Blackman-Leoni was assisted at the scene by the Jackson Fire Department, Summit Township Fire Department, Jackson Community Ambulance and the Jackson County Disaster Assistance Response Team.
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