GALESBURG, Mich. (WOOD) — Four people were treated for smoke inhalation and minor burns following a fire in Galesburg Wednesday morning.
The fire broke out around 10 a.m. in an attached garage on Battle Creek Street near Grove Street. When firefighters arrived, they found three adults and a child unable to escape the second floor of the home.
“They were upstairs and the smoke conditions came from the garage through a breezeway into the house and we had heavy smoke on the first floor,” Galesbug-Charleston Fire Department Chief Kevin Roomsburg explained, “so they couldn’t come down due to the smoke conditions on the first floor and the uncertainty if there was an actual fire down there.”
He said it was too risky to try to get them out through the front door, so firefighters put up a ladder and helped them out of a window. The three adults were treated at the scene and the child was taken to the hospital for observation.
Crews contained the fire to the attached garage, which was also being used as a living space, and soon knocked it down.
The fire chief said it wasn’t immediately clear what sparked the fire. The Comstock Township Fire Marshall will investigate.