Electrical fire damages ski and snowboard shop in Downtown Dearborn after fuse box 'popped and went up in flames'

DEARBORN (WWJ) — Multiple downtown Dearborn businesses are without power Friday afternoon after an electrical fire at a ski and snowboard shop

The fire broke out around 2 p.m. at Nichols Ski and Snowboard on Michigan Avenue as a fuse box inside the store went up in flames.

WWJ’s Darrylin Horne reported several neighboring businesses in the same building — including L.A. Bistro and Dearborn Brewing — were without power after DTE Energy crews on scene cut power during the investigation.

The exact cause of the fire remains unclear, but owner Tom Nichols said he and his sister were inside when it broke out. He grabbed a fire extinguisher and tried to put it out, but “electrical fires don’t go out that easily,” he said.

“It was very scary because there were a lot of flames and they were shooting right to the ceiling, and I thought, if it gets up to the upstairs, it’s gonna be a problem,” Nichols said. “So I kept just shooting it with the fire extinguisher, trying to knock it down as much as I could, but it just kept reigniting.”

Nichols said when fire crews arrived to the scene they had to get out of the store because they weren’t sure if anything else was going to happen.

Crews eventually extinguished the flames and were able to limit the damage. Nichols said a shipment of new clothes had just come in and there might be some smoke damage to the inventory.

Horne reported a wall inside Nichols had to be torn down due to the fire, but there wasn’t much other damage to the store or the neighboring businesses.

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