ADDISON TWP. – An unattended space heater is the suspected cause of a Dec. 13 fire that destroyed a garage and damaged the house to which it was attached on Kaiser Drive, off Townsend Rd. and north of E. Romeo Rd.

The call came in at 11:38 p.m. and firefighters were on scene at 11:42 p.m.

“The garage was fully involved upon my arrival,” said Fire Chief Jerry Morawski.

All five of the home’s occupants, two adults and three children, made it out safely.

Approximately 11,000 gallons of water from an engine and three tankers was used to extinguish the fire, which was declared under control at 12:47 a.m.

Fire departments from Oxford, Oakland and Bruce townships provided mutual aid.

Morawski cited the snowstorm as the reason why it took a little more than an hour to bring the fire under control.

“Nine inches of snow definitely hindered us,” he said. “It just added time to everything that we did. It made it a lot more difficult to operate.”

With the exception of the wall attached to the garage, which sustained heavy fire damage, “the rest of the house is still intact,” said Morawski, although, “it’s not liveable.”

“I honestly think they’re going to end up tearing the house down,” he said. “I’ve seen houses with less damage where they torn them down.”

The man of the house, according to Morawski, left an electric space heater running unattended inside the garage in order to warm things up so he could get his snowblower ready for use.

“He turned on the space heater at about 6 o’clock and then he went back into the house to wait for the garage to warm up,” the chief said. “At about 11:30 p.m., he opened up the door and saw fire and called us.”

Morawski wished to remind folks that it’s never a good idea to leave space heaters unattended, especially in garages, which typically contain many flammable and combustible materials.