Arsonist Confesses to Hazelhurst Fire
(Crystal A. Proxmire, 1/5/2011)
Forty-four year old Michael Hall was arraigned this afternoon on charges of “arson of a dwelling house,” a felony which could get him up to twenty years in prison.
Fire Marshall Brian Batten said the man had been renting the upstairs bedroom in the home, and had fallen behind several months in rent. “The other two gentlemen living in the home said they helped the man out for as long as they could, but that they needed to rent the room to someone who could afford to pay. They had gone to court to begin eviction proceedings, and one of the men living there told him about it that morning and said he had no reaction.” The roommates living downstairs went to work, and came home to find the house surrounded by fire engines, the front door off it’s hinges, the second floor windows busted out, and the upstairs room and roof a charred disaster.
The next morning Hall turned himself into The Ferndale Police Department and confessed to starting the fire. Batten said that one the man had the house to himself he “drank quite a bit of vodka” and used a golf club to smash items throughout the house. He then set his bedroom on fire and left.
Firefighters got the call at 2:36pm and rushed to the scene. The put the fire out quickly before it spread to the rest of the house. “It’s a mess, but it’s fixable,” Batten said. “It’s maybe $60-70,000 in damage. But the other tenants had to move out. It’s a shame. The house was well maintained, and was immaculate inside. The upstairs is ruined and there’s a little water damage on the first floor.”
The fire also caused Allen Rd to be closed off for about an hour. “The investigation for this is an easy one, since the culprit confessed,” Batten said. “We take every fire investigation seriously, especially ones where people intentionally set fires. This doesn’t just damage property, it puts lives as risk. It’s a felony and he’ll likely be in prison a long time for it.”
For more stories from the Police and Fire Departments, go to https://oaklandcounty115.com/category/policeandfire.
For more pictures, see our previous article – https://oaklandcounty115.com/2011/01/03/hazelhurst-fire-closes-allen/