A damaged multiple units at a South Lyon apartment building and exposed an marijuana grow operation in an adjoining apartment early Friday morning.
South Lyon firefighters had responded to the late night fire at the Waters Edge Apartments on the north end of the city. The fire was reported at 664 Lakewood.
“The fire started in a first floor apartment. The rear bedroom window failed from the fire, which went up to the second floor to the attic,” said South Lyon Fire Chief Mike Kennedy.
As a result, the fire damaged three second floor apartments — one directly above the unit where the fire had started along with one unit on either side of that apartment.
“We had to pull the ceiling down to get access to the attic,” said Kennedy.
The fire started when a candle got too close to some bedding, he said, and has been ruled an accidental fire. Two occupants of that apartment were able to leave the apartment and there were no injuries, Kennedy said.
Firefighters were checking on residents other apartments and received no response to knocks on the first floor apartment next door to where the fire had started.”The smoke was heavy and we needed to make sure that there was no one passed out in the apartment,” said Kennedy.
Firefighters ended up forcing open the door to the adjoining apartment and also found a bedroom door locked. When they received no response, that second door was also forced open.
Inside, firefighters reported finding a marijuana grow operation and contacted South Lyon Police.
An officer called the tenant’s cell phone number and initially talked to the woman’s adult son, who reported his mother was his medical marijuana caregiver. When the woman arrived she had the proper licensing to grow the medical marijuana.However, the woman is now being evicted from the apartment as having a grow operation is in violation of the apartment lease.
“I’m surprised that the grow operation wasn’t the cause of the fire. You can’t do that in a multiple family building,” said Kennedy. “With the fans and heaters, people think they can plug into normal 110 (electrical) service but it’s not built for that.It’s a big power drain. And it’s not even permitted on the lease.”
Police reported finding an irrigation system, grow light, fan, air filtration system and fertilizer in the apartment. The bedroom had two areas walled off by plastic sheeting with a large marijuana plant in each area, police said, with four smaller plants under a grow lamp.
Seedlings in an incubator were in the bathroom sink, officers noted, making it unusable. The apartment had a bed, couch and dining room table but police reported the apartment looked as if it was not lived in.
The apartment management offered hotel rooms for tenants who didn’t want to spend the night in their apartments. DTE Energy workers were able isolate and shut off power to the damaged units while leaving power to the rest of the apartments.
“There was substantial fire into the attic. They will need to replace a substantial part of the roof,” said Kennedy.
That means tenants of the four damaged units will be displaced. Other adjoining units may also have their occupants displaced for the repairs.
credit:hometownlife.com
