Golf clubhouse fire rekindles

HANOVER TWP. — Just as state and local officials were beginning to investigate a Monday blaze that destroyed the clubhouse at Indian Ridge Golf Course in Hanover Twp., a fire rekindled at 10:35 a.m. Tuesday, June 23, sending firefighters from surrounding areas back to the scene on U.S. 27 (Millville-Oxford Road).

Fire units from Reily, Milford and Somerville townships and the city of Oxford were called to haul tankers of water to the fire, which was described by dispatchers as “fully involved.”

Smoke was visible for miles, according to witnesses, but golfers were still playing on the course.

A preliminary investigation indicates the rekindled fire started in a portion of a roof still standing above the pro shop area.

“The state investigators called it in,” said Hanover Twp. Fire Deputy Chief Fred Stitsinger. By about 1 p.m., the second blaze in two days had been extinguished and state and local investigators went back to work looking for a cause.

Shane Cartmill, public information officer for the state fire marshal’s office, said the investigation could take a week to complete.

At about 12:40 a.m. Monday, Hanover Twp. firefighters were called to the clubhouse located near Oxford and found flames shooting from the front of it near the pro shop, said Stitsinger.

“It had been burning for a while,” the deputy chief said about the Monday morning fire.

Firefighters were in the 7,000-square-foot log building about 20 minutes Monday when a portion of the floor collapsed into the basement, which housed the banquet rooms, Stitsinger said.

“It was unsafe then. We pulled everyone out,” he said.

The firefighting mode was then defensive rather than working to save the building and contents.

Stitsinger said the first thing that went though his mind when the floor caved-in was a fatal fire in Colerain Twp. in April 2008 that claimed the lives of two firefighters when the family room floor collapsed while they were fighting a house fire.

“We were very lucky,” Stitsinger said. “I like to say we are good, but I think luck has something to do with it, too.”

Stitsinger said Indian Ridge also was the scene of a large fire several years ago that destroyed a maintenance building.

The golf course facility is located on land owned and farmed by the parents of state Rep. Tim Derickson, R-Hanover Twp. Derickson is one of many partners in the development that opened 11 years ago.

Derickson said Tuesday, “It is sad the building is gone, but there was no one hurt, that’s what matters. It could have been much worse.”

He said he plans to make available a second building on the land — also a large log structure that once housed a furniture store — for use of receptions previously booked for the clubhouse.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2168 or lpack@coxohio.com.