Roof Of Burning Store Collapses Under Firemen

Two Ann Arbor firemen narrowly escaped injury this morning white fighting a fire which burned out the ShifrinWillens Jewelry Store in the Arborland Shopping Center. Firefighter Donald Haywood, 29, and Fire Lt. Glendell Wade, 44, were taken to University Hospital for examination after a ceiling in the jewelry store collapsed. Fire Chief Arthur L. Stauch and Fire Marshal John R. Williams said Haywood and Wade were on the roof of the Shifrin-Willens firm when the flooring beneath them, weakened by water and flame, suddenly gave way. Haywood plunged through the ceiling of the store, hit a counter, bounced off and landed on his back on the floor. Wade, who had been standing beside Haywood, managed to seize a section of roof as he was falling through the hole. While firefighters rushed to Haywood's aid, others seized an "attic ladder" and ran it into the store where Wade's legs could be seen dangling through the hole in the ceiling. Wade was lifted from his precarious perch and Haywood, shaken but apparently unhurt, was helped out of the fire-ruined store. Both men assured superiors they were not injured but were ordered to the hospital for an examjnation. Wade, a fireman for 17 years, is chief officer of a shift of firefighters at the Huron Parkway station. Haywood has been a fireman for three years and works out of the central station. The fire started shortly after 9 a.m. when Joseph Catalano, manager of the Shifrin-Willens firm, switched on window display lights at the south entrance to the store. Catalano said moments af ter the lights were turned on, he smelled smoke and then saw flames coming out of a light fixture. He told an employé to cali the Fire Department and then ran to a second floor area to attempt to put out the fire with an. extinguisher. But the flames spread rapidly along the south ceiling of the jewelry store, and when firemen arrived from the Huron Parkway station and central headquarters, the store was enveloped in smoke. Firemen used an aerial ladder to reach the roof while other firefighters shot toas of water up at the flaming ceiling from the ground. "Fire stops" separating Shifrin-Willens from the Sibley Shoe Store to the west and Faber's Fabrics to the east apparently prevented flames from reaching those two business places. However, both Sibley's and Faber's had smoke damage, firemen said. Chief Stauch and Fire Marshal Williams said a short , circuit in the display lights in Shifrin-Willens apparently caused the blaze. An investigation of the fire is continuing. Most of the merchandise in Shifrin-Willens was destroyed or extensively damaged. Water inside the store I was several inches deep and charred pieces of ceilingl tile lay on counters and display cases throughout the long.l narrow business place. Stores in Arborland were sched-l uled to open at 10 a.m., about an hour after the fire brokel out. The blaze carne almost exactly a year after the interi- or of the Kinney Shoe Store in Arborland was virtually de-l stroyed by a fire. That blaze also started in the ceiling. -- - - - - - - l