The Motel 72 in Grayling is a total loss after a fire Thursday morning.
Firefighters received the call for a structure fire after 4 a.m. They arrived to the scene, on M-72, to find the structure engulfed in flames.
Fourteen agencies across the region responded to the call and crews remained on scene throughout the day to clear debris.
“First priority here is to make sure that everybody had gotten out safe and was accounted for,” says Undersheriff Ryan Swope, Crawford County Sheriff’s Office. “That had happened, thank goodness, and then they just try and save the property the best we can.”
A least a dozen people were evacuated from the building. Some of the guests were staying by the night or long-term. After the fires, they were left with no place to go.
The Grayling community stepped up to help. Katie Tinker owns Tinker’s Junction Bar & Grill- next door to the motel – an employee called at 4 a.m. to tell her the motel was on fire.
“I thank her for calling me and told her we would be OK,” says Tinker, on the phone after stepping away from her second job. “I went back to sleep and between that time and 4:45 I probably received about 15 more phone calls or text messages asking about Tinker’s and if I knew what was going on.”
Tinker couldn’t sleep after that phone call, so she got up and got to work.
“I said go open up, get the coffee ready and offer shelter to those who have been displaced by the fire,” she says. “I came in to town, on my way I called dispatch and let dispatch know that we would be opening up and be able to afford shelter and coffee and facilities for the responders and people who were displaced from the hotel.”
Tinker’s provided a breakfast to responders and throughout the day offered shelter and a place for the American Red Cross to work.
“We just dealt with the immediate needs,” says Jill Roark, American Red Cross Disaster Action Team Response member. “We had a lot of people that we had to determine whether they were part of it and where they were and we’ve been interviewing all morning long.”
American Red Cross has people assigned to work with those impacted, for the next 30 days. They’ll receive community resources to find housing, clothing and food. Red Cross deals with immediate needs during a disaster.
Tinker says she also spoke with the owners the morning of the fire.
“The hotel owners they’ve been great neighbors to us we refer customers back and forth quite often,” she says. “When I left this morning, they were onsite at tankers and they were very, very tired but holding their own and very grateful to be together and although everything was a total loss they’re still together.”
The cause of the fire is an ongoing investigation, that may go on for several weeks.
“We’ll have the fire marshal out here again from the Michigan State Police,” says Undersheriff Swope. “The drone unit will be out to fly it just to make sure that all of our reports are complete to the best that they can be and to ultimately determine that there was no foul play.”
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