Firefighter Fired After House Burns

Tom Stuart II and his fiancee, Howell native Kayla Grimm, lost their Eaton Rapids home and possessions in a New Year’s Day fire. They’re currently staying in the area with relatives. (Screenshot via WILX video)

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2015 is off to a roaring start for a Michigan firefighter – make that ex-firefighter.

Tom Stuart II was not only stripped of his status as a volunteer firefighter for Eaton Rapids, but also lost his home and the possessions inside it to a roaring New Year’s Day blaze, the Lansing State Journal reports.

In the first strike in the one-two punch, Stuart and his fiancee, Kayla Grimm, awoke Jan 1 to find their rented house filled with thick, black smoke.

They and their 2-month-old daughter, Kinsley, made it out safely, but if they hadn’t acted swiftly? “Three minutes later and you would have found three bodies in that house,” Stuart told WILX-TV.

“I couldn’t see anything, the first thing that ran through my body was fear,” Grimm told the TV station. “You never expect to wake up and your house is covered in smoke.”

Trained to respond, Stuart reported to the Eaton Rapids Fire Department and worked alongside firefighters from four departments for three hours to try to save his family’s residence and that of a neighbor.

Almost everything the couple owned – clothing, Christmas presents, toys, the TV set – is gone.

“We don’t exactly know what our plan is, but we know that God will lead us in the right direction, Grimm, who grew up in Howell, wrote on a GoFundMe page established to help the family, who didn’t have renters’ insurance, rebuild their lives.”

“Tom will continue to serve as a firefighter …” she wrote.

No, he won’t.

That’s because of the second blow, heaped on top of the “shock” of the fire four days later, Stuart said.

Stuart: Fire Chief ”Angry” About News Coverage

Eaton Rapids Fire Chief Roger McNutt wrote him up for insubordination and removed his name from the duty roster of the fire department, which pays firefighters on an on-call basis. McNutt told he Lansing newspaper Stuart “failed to follow orders” and had a history of on-the-job performance-related issues.

Stuart, who has been with the fire department since October when he and Grimm moved to Mid-Michigan from Washington, DC, disputes that and says he hadn’t been cited for any violations.

He thinks the real reason he was removed was that he allowed WILX and another local news crew who had heard of the crowdfunding effort to film inside the burned structure before investigators arrived.

“I didn’t know the fire investigator hadn’t been there yet,” Stuart said. “The chief was angry about the crews going into the house.”

Investigators haven’t officially determined the cause of the fire, but say it isn’t suspicious. Stuart thinks it may have started in the chimney because the couple uses the fireplace for auxiliary heat and had been using it on Dec. 31.

“If You Can Afford It, Get Renter’s Insurance”

So far, 33 people have raised $1,585 to help the family, who for noware staying with relatives in Livingston County. Stuart, who was trying to get a fledgling home restoration business off the ground when the fire occurred, doesn’t expect to return to Eaton Rapids.

If there’s a lesson, it’s how important it is for tenants to get casualty insurance, to install smoke detectors and develop a fire-escape plan.

“If you can afford it, get renter’s insurance,” he emphasized. “It’s not going to take the pain away but it’s going to help replace a lot more things than we’re unfortunately able to do.”