Residential blaze caused by reckless smoking

A careless smoker who didn’t ash correctly before falling asleep ended up scorching his Commerce Township home last week.

According to Commerce Township Fire Chief Joe Schornack, just before 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 4, a resident of the 1000 block of West Oakley Park Road called the fire department for help controlling a fire.

The resident apparently had fallen asleep while smoking and a bit of ash fell between a mattress and a wall. The man woke up when material started smoldering. He tried to use both water and a home fire extinguisher to douse the fire. He said he thought the situation was under control, but when he saw fire coming out of the top of the wall he called the fire department.

Commerce Township firefighters put out the fire quickly with the help of Walled Lake firefighters. None of the rooms in the house had any kind of smoke detectors.

Schornack reminds residents to keep smoke detectors in their homes, to check them monthly and to change the batteries in them twice a year.