Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


Firefighters were able to stop the spread of a structure fire to a historic church in Hamburg Township.

Hamburg Township Public Safety personnel were dispatched around 3:30am Wednesday to a reported building fire in the area of Hamburg Road and Stone Street within the Village.

While en route, responding units were advised that the fire had possibly spread to the rear of St. Stephens Episcopal Church - which was built in 1844 and is listed as a Michigan State Historical Site.

The on-duty fire crew from Fire Station 12 located on M-36 near Hamburg Road arrived on scene within 6 minutes of being dispatched and found a well-involved fire consuming an out-building located near the church.

The on-duty fire crew from Fire Station 11 located at M-36 and Pettysville Road arrived approximately 4 minutes later.

Fire personnel immediately took action to extinguish the original fire, while at the same time preventing the fire from spreading to the church.

Public Safety Director Rick Duffany complimented fire crews for their quick response and efforts which led to the original fire being contained and preventing it from spreading to the historic church.

Duffany also noted that, in addition to having the ability to handle multiple calls at the same time, the incident highlights the benefit of staffing both Hamburg Township fire stations 24 hours a day - which has been a point of emphasis for the department over the past year.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Hamburg Township Fire personnel were assisted at the scene by the Green Oak Township Fire Department and Livingston County EMS.

Meanwhile, a post on the church’s Facebook page said: “The people of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church are eternally grateful to the Hamburg Township Public Safety Department for their swift and skilled response to a structure fire behind our Church building. The Church building has very minimal damage. It could have been so much worse”.