Business Owners Scramble for Employee Housing After Ephraim House Fire

The owners of two businesses that relied on this house for employee housing expressed gratitude Thursday to firefighters and emergency responders. Submitted.

A house fire that broke out just before midnight Wednesday destroyed an upstairs apartment and caused extensive smoke and water damage to four employee housing units at the north side of Ephraim.

“They weren’t moved in there yet, thank God,” Julie Barnes said of the four J-1 Visa students who are arriving from overseas to work at the Barnes family businesses – Ephraim Motel and Door County Rock and Gem.

Barnes said she will ask the Ephraim Planning Committee on Tuesday for an emergency variance to place a mobile home or two mobile homes on her land near the burned house until repairs or reconstruction can take place. 

“We’re scrambling to find a plan B,” said Julie’s husband, Scott Barnes, who operates Door County Rock and Gem.

His son, Mike Barnes, lived in the upstairs three-room apartment under the steep A-frame gable of the house at 2854 Shannon Square. Mike said a noise awakened him. He looked down the hall and saw flames at the front of the house and on top of the front porch.

Mike went downstairs and out of the house to wake up the tenant of the apartment adjacent to the rear of the house, Audra Sather. By the time he, Audra and Sather’s cat reached the street in front of the house, fire was quickly advancing through the upstairs.

Mike Barnes called 911 at 11:52 pm and soon Ephraim and Sister Bay/Liberty Grove and five other northern Door County fire departments were on the scene. Mike Barnes expressed gratitude to one of the emergency medical volunteers on the scene who loaned him firefighter pants to wear, as he escaped the house while wearing boxers and a T-shirt.

At first, firefighters attacked the fire from the exterior, and eventually they had to pull down ceilings to get at the fire inside, he said. Fire destroyed the peak of the roof, which rose about 6 feet above the rest of the roofline, said Scott Barnes.

Ephraim Fire Chief Justin MacDonald said he’ll leave a damage estimate up to the insurance adjuster, as well as whether the structure can be salvaged. He said although the bedrooms on the sides of the house did not have much fire damage, they have smoke damage. There’s significant water damage throughout due to the water required to fight the fire.

Fire departments assisting Ephraim included Sister Bay/Liberty Grove, Baileys Harbor, Gibraltar, Jacksonport, Egg Harbor and Sturgeon Bay. MacDonald listed the cause and origin point of the fire as undetermined.

Scott Barnes said fire investigators, insurance adjusters, a fire-cleanup crew and people who could help board up the house all responded either in person or by phone by 2 pm Thursday to provide assistance.

“Julie and I want to extend our deepest thanks to all the emergency service personnel who came to our assistance earlier this morning,” Scott wrote on the Door County Rock and Gem Facebook page. “All your training showed you were ready for this challenge with great professionalism and compassion. Thank you all! Everyone is safe.”

Sather expressed optimism that she could move back into the unit she has resided in for three years, as it only had a slight smoky smell and no smoke and water damage.

But the fire definitely displaced Mike Barnes. 

“Everything I had was in there,” he said.

He said he sees most of the items as “just stuff,” although there were irreplaceable photographs and mementoes. He said he’s just relieved that “nobody else was in there.”