More than a year after a fire destroyed a recreational vehicle (RV) belonging to Lawrence Scully of Grand Marais, the origin of the fire is still not certain. However, on February 22, 2016, Cook County Sheriff Pat Eliasen said the case is closed and the fire is considered to have been accidental.
On Friday, August 8, 2014, at about 11 a.m. a call came in to Cook County Law Enforcement reporting that a trailer was on fire. Grand Marais Fire Department, Grand Marais First Responders, Cook County Ambulance and Maple Hill Fire Department were paged and on the scene by 11:02 a.m. to find not a house trailer, but an RV on fire, parked approximately 20 feet from a residence and outbuilding at the east end of 5th Street.
The fire was extinguished and emergency responders were clear of the scene at 12:50 p.m. Scully was not injured, but the RV and all of its contents were a total loss.
Although the Cook County News-Herald contacted the State Fire Marshal’s Office numerous times, details were not released to the Cook County Sheriff ’s Office until the beginning of February 2016. Sheriff Pat Eliasen said this week that the Fire Marshal’s Office was unable to identify an ignition source.
Sheriff Eliasen said when deputies arrived on scene they described the fire as being in the center of the RV, which is apparently quite common with RV fires. Eliasen said the cause is generally faulty appliances and most specifically the refrigerator. Eliasen said that can’t be named as the source due to the insufficient information, but he said the fire is considered accidental.
Reached a year after the fire, in August 2015, Jennifer Longaecker of the Department of Public Safety explained, “It’s not uncommon for investigations to take months to complete; fire investigations are a very complex process and not every fire is the same.”
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