Fire at the Country Grill

An overheated electric motor on the roof of the Country Grill Restaurant in Ishpeming caused a small fire this afternoon.

The Ishpeming Volunteer Fire Department says the fire happened just after 3 p.m. Eyewitness accounts from customers and employees report that the entire inside of the restaurant filled with smoke. Firefighters searched the rooftop of the facility and found an overheated air handling electrical unit motor that is now believed to have been the cause of the fire and subsequent smoke. The Country Grill will remain closed for the rest of the day, and will reopen tomorrow.

Around that same time, our station lost power due to a failed switch at the Country Village. UPPCO has since replaced the switch, and is not expecting any further outages. For now, the two incidents are considered unrelated.