Fire damages Essexville construction company

ESSEXVILLE An office fire Saturday night damaged an Essexville building belonging to the construction company Quality Built Buildings and Diversified Environmental.

The blue two-story building is located at 300 Atlantic St. and both businesses are owned by Tom Vermeesh.

Im speechless, Vermeesh said after arriving on the scene of the fire.

According to Vermeesh the building contained a garage, a bathroom and two offices, one upstairs and one downstairs. He confirmed the fire occurred in the office portion. Both the firefighters and Vermeesh also confirmed it did not spread to the garage with Vermeesh adding no one was in the building at the time of the fire.

Five engines from Bay City Fire Rescue and Essexvilles Hampton Township Fire Department responded to the fire. Assistant Chief Robert Phillips said firefighters were on the scene within five minutes of first call from the buildings neighbors about it and had the fire extinguished within 40 minutes of arriving. Phillips added the interior office portion of the building had suffered substantial damage but that the building itself remained structurally sound.

According to Phillips the cause of the fire remains unknown at this time. He said an official investigation into the fire is going to be handled by the fire marshal and the county sheriff.

Vermeeshs employee Ken Vink was with Vermeesh on the scene Saturday night. Vink said he is in the building almost everyday for business reasons and confirmed he had been in the building earlier in the day before the fire. He noted that at that time the building had smelled like gasoline but added this is normal because of the garage and the vehicle maintenance that is done within it.

The garage contained a pickup truck, a boom lift and a Bobcat skid loader at the time of the fire. After firefighters opened the buildings garage doors none of the vehicles appeared to be damaged.

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Fire damages Essexville construction company