Market, banquet hall ravaged by fire

PULLMAN, Mich. (WOOD) - Firefighters from two counties worked to save a small business and banquet hall in Allegan County on Aug. 8.

The San Miguel Market on 109th Avenue in Pullman caught fire about 3 p.m. Fortunately, there were only a few people inside when the fire started and they all escaped safely. But there's not much left to the building.

The local fire chief said it was a supermarket at one time. The supermarket moved out and a smaller market moved in. The rest of the building was used as a sort of banquet hall.

An overhead light ballast in the kitchen of the market on the east end of the building started the fire that spread quickly, said Lee Township Fire Chief Nelvin DeWeerd. He told 24 Hour News 8 that employees at the market noticed problems with the light earlier in the day, and then saw smoke and flames coming from the ceiling near the light.

The chief said he knew the building. He said knew if it ever caught fire it would not be easy to put out.

"When we got on the scene, the fire was already through the roof on the east end," said Chief DeWeerd. "There's no firewalls in the business, so it just went from east to west."

That made the fire tough to knock down.

"You can't stop it once it gets in there," DeWeerd said. "Wooden trust, so once it got in the attic there was no stopping it."

About seven departments from Allegan and Van Buren counties fought the blaze.

Water was a big challenge -- there are no hydrants in Pullman, so firefighters had to go to nearby lakes and ponds with tanker trucks, fill them up and bring the water back.