Twelve members of the South Green Lake Volunteer Fire Department were jerked from their sleep by their pagers at 2 a.m. on Sept. 27 to respond to a residential structural fire.
"When we arrived, flames were shooting 40 feet in the air, the building was fully engaged, the sky was red and it was hot," fire chief Peter McKie says, adding no one was home at the seasonal recreational residence.
The firefighters responded with two pumpers and a tender. They battled the blaze for five hours to extinguish the flames, which were limited to the main building.
All other structures on the property were undamaged, McKie notes.
During the five-hour standoff, firefighters poured 8,400 gallons of water on the structure with the tender making six trips to the nearest accessible access road, and 1,700 gallons from the pumper trucks.
McKie says the fire presented some problems.
"The residence was constructed of vertical log poles, so it was challenging get water into it. We had to cut holes with our chainsaws to gain access to the lower reaches.
"Due to it being a log structure, we had to return to the site several times during the day to extinguish several flare-ups."
Three firefighters were back at the site at 10 a.m. and then again at 1 p.m. to put out hot spots.
Then they were back at 3:45 p.m. on Sept. 28.
"Fortunately, no one was hurt during the fire."