UPDATE: House Catches Fire in Wyandotte

A man who works the midnight shift woke up at about 2:15 p.m. Wednesday to find the back porch of his house in the 400 block of Cedar on fire.

It took firefighters about an hour to get the fire under control. By that time, though, the second floor of the home and the attic area had suffered significant damage.

“Wind speeds didn’t help us any,” Chief Jeffery Carley said. “(The fire) spread pretty quickly because of the wind.”

At the time, he said, the wind speed was about 24 mph, gusting as high as 33 mph.

The man was the only member of his family home at the time. Firefighters were able to rescue the family’s pets, with the exception of one bird, who died.

Carley said firewood, hay and an electrical cord were found on the back porch, but that investigators were unable to determine the cause of the fire.

While firefighters were able to keep the blaze from spreading to the neighboring house on both sides, Carley said, each suffered minor heat damage.

The Southgate Fire Department and the Downriver Fire Investigation Task Force assisted Wyandotte firefighters.

Carley also credits a crew from , who were in the area working, spotted the fire and called to report it.

The last fire engine left the scene at about 5 p.m. and investigators wrapped up their work at about 7 p.m.

Carley said this was the first major fire that’s occurred since

“The guys did a great job,” he said. “It made my new role a lot easier.”