By Patricia Bogumil
Staff Writer
The family displaced by a multi-alarm fire that ravaged their Tichigan home last week is doing well, given the circumstances.
“We’re doing well and we appreciate what everyone’s done. People have been great,” said Shawn Thomas, who lived at 28430 Joanie Lane with his wife, Kim and children, Austin and Delaney, before the Jan. 27 fire.
“We’re moving forward,” Thomas added.
By the end of this week, he explained, the family hopes to complete arrangements to move out of their temporary housing and into a house.
“We don’t want to make a big deal,” Thomas said, noting that he had turned down requests for interviews by Milwaukee stations.
Tuesday afternoon, Racine County fire investigators were still on scene at the family’s two-story home in the Hidden Harbor Subdivision, trying to determine the cause of the fire, according to Tichigan Fire Co. Chief Todd Bluhm.
So far, the investigation indicates the cause appears to be a malfunction of some sort rather than anything suspicious, said Sgt. Bill Mattke of the Racine County Sheriff’s Dept. on Tuesday.
The Thomas’ entire house was totally gutted by the fire, with just the garage spared from the flames, Bluhm said.
According to the county’s Communications Center, several 911 calls about the fire were received at 9:05 a.m., Jan. 27.
Callers stated that the fire seemed to be coming from the chimney area, which is on the backside of the home.
On arrival, Sheriff’s Department deputies and a Town of Waterford officer found the backside of the residence heavily involved in flames, and determined that no one was home.
Units from the Tichigan, Waterford and Rochester fire companies arrived on the scene.
Additional help was then requested from other fire companies in Racine, Waukesha and Walworth counties, said Bluhm.
A total of 11 fire companies assisted Tichigan in battling the blaze, according to the Sheriff’s Department, including departments from Wind Lake, Raymond, Kansasville, Burlington, Tess Corners, Big Bend, Vernon, Mukwonago and East Troy.
Records show the first fire engine arrived on scene in 11 minutes, which Bluhm said is an “about average response.”
“We’re a volunteer department,” Bluhm said, explaining that no personnel stay in the department to await a callout.
Instead, especially for a daytime fire, volunteers are typically called out from their jobs and must drive over to the firehouse, he said.
Bluhm, a third-generation fire fighter in his family, remembers growing up at a time when volunteers were local farmers or business people who could just walk over to the station when the fire alarms went off.
That’s no longer the case. Bluhm said. “We’re really a bedroom community now.”
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