An Early morning fire last Thursday destroyed a restaurant and the local library in Webberville
A blaze started at 5:20 a.m. in the kitchen area of the restaurant. A gas stove is beleived to have started the fire which quickly spread to the rest of the building.
"The flames went up the wall," noted Allen Hale, who as village president spoke to the media.
"Two people were living in the apartments upstairs and the Leroy Township Fire Department woke them up and got them out," he added.
The Fowlerville Fire Dept. was called in 20 minutes after the local firefighters responded to the call, as was the ambulance and paramedic unit. The sheriff department also arrived to direct traffic out of Grand River Ave.
"Around 6:30 a.m. we called in the Williamston Fire Dept. for more help,"noted Hale, "and they brought in a tanker."
Firefighters were hampered in their efforts to control the blaze, which soon engulfed the entire building, by an inability to shut off the gas line.
Water shortage also became a problem and by 7:30 a.m. the village's water tower was empty.
The tankers from three area departments were aided by the 6,500- gallon bulk tank from Gantz trucking who came to help out.
Fireman were still on the scene in to the afternoon hours.
A new problem loomed after the fire was finally put out. "The roof is gone and the walls are unstable," said Hale that afternoon, "so the building will have to be quickly torn down and hauled away."
Traffic , as of late Friday afternoon, was still being rerouted away from that stretch of Grand River Ave.and the entire area was roped off and patroled by on-duty fireman
The Webberville Branch of the Ingham county Library had everything detroyed, including about 10,000 books, and 1,000 videocassettes, audio cassettes, and compact discs.