BELLAIRE -- If you're forced to lose an estimated $1 million in golf course maintenance equipment, January is probably the best time for it to happen.
A fire ripped through one of Shanty Creek Resorts' three golf course maintenance buildings early Tuesday. The blaze destroyed lawn mowers and other equipment used to groom the Cedar River golf course and left a chemical-ridden mess for emergency crews to mop up.
But the resort is focused on skiing, not its dormant golf courses, so the fire's timing could have been worse.
"It is a loss, but we're in pretty good spirits," spokeswoman Lindsey Southwell said. "It's all golf course equipment, so at this point we're not too worried. We expect to have this up and running before the golf season even starts."
Someone noticed the fire at about 6:30 a.m., Southwell said. Fire quickly consumed the pole barn structure off Del Mason Road near the resort's Cedar River Village.
"By the time it was spotted, (the building) was pretty much gone," Southwell said.
Fire crews didn't have much left to save when they arrived.
"By the time we got there, it was pretty much down with a lot of smoke," Mancelona Fire Chief Ed Sayre said.
The building also housed large amounts of fertilizer and pesticides, so Antrim County's hazardous materials team also responded to contain and clean up the contaminants.
The building is a complete loss, and there isn't any preliminary indication of what caused the fire.
"It was such a mess, there was no way to determine it," Sayre said.
State fire inspector Dale Hardy was on scene Tuesday afternoon. Investigators don't believe anyone had been in the building for a few days, but couldn't immediately rule out any activity around the time of the fire.
The building was heated and filled with several things that could have caused the blaze, Hardy said.
"The first thing I have to look at is accidental causes, and there's a lot of them in here," he said.
The investigation likely will be difficult because of the extent of the damage, Hardy said.
The resort's maintenance equipment vendor was expected to determine exactly what was lost in the fire, Southwell said. Managers estimate about $1 million in equipment was lost, not including the building.
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