People's reaction




Here are some personal accounts from residents and fire personnal during and after the wildfire that devistated the area.


"It's like losing a member of the family", said Horton, a Flint carpenter who built the cabin in 1947 with his father and planned to pass it along to his sons. "We have been coming up, summer and winter, since they were little boys. Our place was like a museum. I'm a great collector; license plates, beer bottles, all kinds of antiques. There were deer hides and trophy heads. Are we going to rebuild? Don't talk to me about rebuilding, I'm 65 years old."
Dick Horton, remembering his cottage.


"I saw 14 houses burning in a single block in the Shaw Park area. There is no way to take an accurate count of the homes and cabins burned. We evacuated about 300 people"
Officer Dean Goss


"In all the 37 years I've been around house fires in Grayling, I saw more houses burn today than all the others combined."
Sheriff Harold Hatfield


John Murray said he had been told for years that the surrounding jack pines were prime candidates for a devastating forest fire, but he told a reporter after the fire that he never believed it. His house was destroyed....
(from news reports)


"It was the scariest fire I've ever been in. It was the most houses I've ever seen burn in my 27 years of firefighting."
Ed Holtcamp, Beaver Creek Fire Chief


"If the rains had not come and the winds died down as they did, the fire would have probably burned through the night and taken off and run all the next day."
Duane Brooks, DNR fire officer


"I never believed a fire could move that fast. The smoke was so thick the sun was just a dim, red ball."
Julie Gates, owner of AuSable Lodge


"They said to just get the hell out of there."
Joani Massara, resident


Jonathan Weymers, 21, had gone downstate to pick up a bed. He returned with his wife and daughter to find everything except the bed had been destroyed by the fire. They did not have any insurance.
(from news reports)


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Last updated =======> Febuary 1, 1998