Fire Marshal Once Served as a Private Investigator

After 10 years of serving as the fire marshal of the , Mike Bernardin is a familiar face to some in the community.

Here’s your chance to get to know him a little better.

Quick bio

A 1993 graduate of Hartland High School, Mike, 36, went to Lake Superior State University and earned a degree in fire science. He worked for a short time as a private investigator and as a firefighter in the Upper Peninsula community of Menominee before returning to Hartland.

He's married to Michelle and they have two daughters.

Life as a private investigator

Between 1998 and 1999, Mike was the guy insurance companies would send out to confirm that a claim was legitimate.

“It was something that I did while I was seeking full-time employment with different fire departments,” he said. “At the time, it was just a job that sounded interesting plus it gave me the chance to travel.”

After a year on the job, Mike had practically visited every small town in Michigan, and seen most of the Midwest. Mike said he used different tactics to get the proof he needed to show that a person was either lying about their insurance claim or telling the truth. Most of the time, he would observe their house and wait for them to come out to do yard work or run errands.

One case that turned out to be fraudulent involved a man who was on disability for a bad shoulder. Mike ended up recording him bowling at the local alley. Other than stealth and patience, Mike relied on ingenuity to blend in.

“If the person lived on a lake front, I would take a boat out and go fishing, or dress in camouflage. Sometimes they would get wise as to who you were, so I would rent a different vehicle.”

One of the most memorable cases for Mike involved a sheriff’s deputy who was on disability for a job-related injury. Mike followed and caught him on tape performing as a rodeo clown in Buffalo, MN.

Mike remained objective despite his job’s focus on catching people in a lie.

“What you have to remember is that you are toying with someone’s life, or their [ability to collect] benefits.” Mike said. “One quarter of the time, [the people I observed] actually had something wrong with them. The insurance company wouldn’t send us out if they didn’t have a reason to believe them.”

Proponent of residential fire sprinkler systems

More recently, Mike was instrumental in the introduction of a new building code in 2009 that would have required that hew homes were equipped with sprinkler systems. The changes didn’t pass, but Mike continues to be a big supporter of residential fire sprinklers. In some movies and TV shows, characters sometimes set off a building’s sprinkler system in order to create a diversion. In real life, according to Mike, only the sprinklers that are within the proximity of a fire go off.

“Ninety-six percent of all fires that occur within a [building equipped with a sprinkler system] are either controlled or extinguished by no more than two sprinkler heads,” he said.

Some worry that sprinklers will cause excessive water damage. But once activated, the water output of a single sprinkler is far less when compared to the output of the average fire hose. Another concern is that sprinklers are too easy to set off by accident, as with a smoke alarm. But they are activated by heat, so they’re not as easy to set off by accident as, say, a smoke alarm.

“If you ever look up at the silver or white sprinkler head, you should see a red glass bulb, called a frangible bulb," Mike said. "The color red means that it takes around 150 Fahrenheit to break that bulb. because what happens is that there is a special liquid inside which expands from the heat. And when it expands the glass can’t hold it in so it breaks. The thin piece of glass is the only thing holding in the water.”