Left: Jeremy Somnis, with First Responder David Beckwith and Sheriff Deputy Julie Collman inspects damage caused to his home by the Thursday, July 2 fire. Above: Fire damage would have been much worse if it was not for the family dog, Samson, who broke off his lead and alerted the neighborhood.
The damage at the Jeremy Somnis home on 934 Cut Off Road in Grand Marais would have been much worse if not for an overexcited Golden Retriever named Samson who alerted neighborhood teens to the fire. When the fire was noticed at around 3:00 p.m., on Thursday, July 2, the Maple Hill Community Fire Department responded and was able to extinguish the blaze, containing the damage to the basement and one end of the house.
The fire had nearly burned itself out, having most likely smoldered for most of the day. Somnis and his sons, Riley and Connor, were not at home at the time of the fire. Neighbor Anders Zimmer, 13, said he noticed an odor of smoke while doing lawn work at 10:00 a.m. “I figured someone was burning brush or something,” said Zimmer.
Two other neighborhood teens, Johnny Jacobsen, 13, and Parker Slanga, 14, were the ones who realized there was a fire. Theywere outside when Somnis’s dog, Samson, came running up to them—with a broken lead. They decided to return him to his yard and noticed that the smoke was stronger as they approached the house. Theyalso heard smoke alarms going off. Jacobsen looked in the window and saw that the house was filled with smoke. He opened the door to an outpouring of smoke and heard the sound of water running. Slanga ran to the Jacobsen home to call 911 and the Maple Hill Fire Department, Grand Marais First Responders, and Cook County Ambulance was paged at 3:08.
The fire department responded and the fire was quickly extinguished and the smoke ventilated. The fire department was cleared from the scene at 5:02 p.m.
It appears that the fire started in the family room in the basement, possibly caused by a space heater. The blaze melted a water pipe, which helped damper the fire, however it caused significant water damage.
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