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Southfield firefighters recognized for saving golf history from Oakland Hills CC blaze
Meanwhile the fire's devastation can still be seen months after the 100-year-old clubhouse burned to the ground. Crews will rebuild the clubhouse that is expected to open again in 2024, giving the saved memorabilia a new home.
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (FOX 2) - Video from the helmets of Southfield firefighters shows the tense moment they rushed into Oakland Hills Country Club to save historic golf memorabilia just before a massive fire got out of hand.
"You just take it like any other fire you’d be on go in and do your job," said Patrick Kerr, Southfield firefighter.
Recording show how firefighters broke the trophy case glass, grabbing artifacts, then carrying them to safety. The firefighters then turned back around to save more trophies.
"I’m a big history guy," said Lt. Zachary McKee. "Being part of history is kind of cool. Again, we just showed up, we had no idea what we are going into."
McKee and Kerr are two of the four firefighters who ran into the burning building in Bloomfield Township back in February to save golf history.
"We cleared out the main trophy case in the main lobby," McKee said. "All the photos off the walls in that area to more smaller trophy cases in the wing off there that we got, the big paintings in the basement we were able to grab those."
On Friday the firefighters, who love to play golf themselves, were honored by the golf community. MI Golf Journal published an article written by Janina Jacobs about the firefighters' heroics.
After seeing the story, Boyne Golf and Treetops Resort both gave the firefighters a free round for two.
"It’s awesome," Kerr said. "You don’t do it for recognition, but it’s really cool they came out and gave us the stuff. Pretty awesome."
"The firefighters enjoyed on some of their off time coming up to play we just thought it was a small gesture of thanks on our part to thank them for all the risks they take every day, but specifically that day at Oakwood Hills," said Ken Griffin, Boyne Golf.
Related:
- Oakland Hills Country Club fire: Historic clubhouse destroyed in massive blaze
- Update: Oakland Hills Country Club fire has caused structure to 'pancake on itself'
Meanwhile, the fire's devastation can still be seen months after the 100-year-old clubhouse burned to the ground. Crews will rebuild the clubhouse that is expected to open again in 2024, giving the saved memorabilia a new home.
"Lives are more important than memorabilia," Griffin said. "We’re just glad that no one was injured no one’s lives were lost and they were all able to save all these artifacts."