GRAND TRAVERSE COUNTY — GRAND TRAVERSE COUNTY — Investigators are still looking into a fire that destroyed a Buckley-area home and vehicle, leaving the tenants displaced but unharmed.
The fire broke out just before midnight Saturday at a home on Fox Road near Buckley. By the time firefighters arrived, flames had already spread from the basement to the upper floor.
Tenants Bob and Lisa Hilliard escaped the fire with only moments to spare. The couple lost their home of more than five years, along with a dog and a cat.
“We were just getting up from sitting in the living room, and we were going to get ready for bed,” Bob said. “We both just kind of smelled smoke and at the same time went to figure out where it was coming from.”
Bob helped Lisa, who uses a walker, to get out of the house.
“She normally would not go out the front door,” he said. “It’s a high step and it’s a little awkward. She yelled at me and said she can’t go out the front, I said you can and you will.”
Blair Township Fire Chief Bill Parker said it took firefighters about two hours to put out the blaze. The cause remains under investigation.
“We work with the state, the locals, the county and also the private sector,” Parker said. “There’s several people involved. It’s kind of all hands on deck when a fire happens like this to pinpoint the cause. Sometimes we can and sometimes we can’t.”
The Hilliards are temporarily staying with their daughter and son-in-law. Bob said they are thankful to have escaped unharmed.
“We’re just thankful. It must have been a guardian angel watching over us again,” he said.
Community members have raised more than $7,000 online to help the couple recover.