Role of gas line in fire questioned

PLAINFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) - A Plainfield Township's woman says she has evidence DTE Energy is at least partially responsible for the fire that destroyed her home.

Kellie Music got the call on the first fire at her home in the Northern Estates Mobile Home Park about 6 p.m. on Jan. 29. By the time she arrived, fire crews had put it out.

"The most damage was by the fire department breaking out all the windows and punching holes in the floor," said Music.

Plainfield Township Fire Department investigators ruled an electrical problem under the home was the likely cause of that fire.

As crews fought the hot spots, Music collected a few of her valuables and wondered how long she would be out of her home. Then she left.

About three hours later, she got another call.

"I was told that my house was on fire again. I came up here and it was totally in flames," she said.

That is where the mystery begins.

== Photos: Mobile home destroyed after 2 fires ==

After the first blaze, DTE Energy cut off gas service at the meter. Electricity was also cut off.

A Plainfield Township fire investigator told 24 Hour News 8 that despite a thorough overhaul of the home by firefighters, it's possible that an ember may have flared up after fire crews left the scene.

Embers usually die out before causing another fire, but that doesn't appear to be the case this time.

Investigators believe some kind of fuel was ignited by one of those embers and, according to their report, that fuel was probably natural gas.

In the report, Plainfield Township fire investigator Kyle Svoboda wrote that as they battled the second fire, crews smelled gas and saw flames coming from the line that connected the underground natural gas service pipe to the home's meter, an indication gas was escaping from that section of pipe at some point.

Also in the report, a bystander told fire crews of hearing a woosh before flames engulfed the home.

But when Music called DTE after learning details of the report, she got nowhere.

"They were not responsible and there was no negligence involved and that they couldn't help me," Music recalled being told.

So Target 8 contacted DTE. One spokesman said the same thing told to Music: That DTE equipment including the meter was examined, but that there was no evidence of a problem, and suggested the fact Music had no insurance on the home was a factor in her pushing the case.

That is something Music denies.

A short time later, Target 8 received a call from another DTE spokesman offering a statement:

"Our DTE equipment was not involved as a cause."

But Music is not buying it.

"Every time I tried to talk to them, we don't believe that that was it. Our findings weren't that. We didn't conclude that," said Music, describing her conversations with the utility company. "I asked for a report. They said they would send me one. I haven't received one."

While she has suffered a major financial loss, Music said some things lost in the fire are irreplaceable.

"My grandmother's rocking chair. It was supposed to be handed down to rock the grandbabies and... That's one of the biggest ones," she said.

The dumpsters now parked in front of her burned-out home answer part of the question of what's next for Music.
 
On Saturday, she and some friends from her church will go to her home and salvage what they can. The rest of the items will be headed to a landfill.