Residents of a home north of Weidman were able to escape injury when it caught fire Monday morning.
Wayde Holbic, his father, also named Wayde, and his dog, Lincoln, evacuated their home at 3820 N. Woodruff Rd. in Nottawa Township after fire broke out midmorning Monday.
The younger Wayde Holbic said he awoke to a smell that was more than smoke, getting himself, his father and Lincoln out of the home while calling for help.
Nottawa-Sherman Townships firefighters arrived on scene after Isabella County Central Dispatch sent them shortly after 10:30 a.m., and began putting out the blaze, as neighbors watched and offered water, food and other necessities to the residents.
The house was fully engulfed when firefighters arrived, setting up a perimeter, blocking off North Woodruff Road and refilling water from the nearby Weidman Millpond to get the blaze under control.
As Nottawa-Sherman firefighters worked to douse the blaze, Isabella County Sheriff’s deputies, Mobile Medical Response Ambulance, and firefighters from Barryton and Deerfield Township arrived to assist.
Holbic was in the process of building raised garden beds in the yard, and worried that roughly 200 seedlings that had not yet been planted likely burned in the fire.
As firefighters worked to extinguish the blaze, Holbic’s co-workers at the nearby Shell gasoline station in Weidman began working on getting donations to help the Holbics, who were unable to get any possessions out of the home before escaping the fire.
