GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A family-owned business on the city's east side is devastated after a fire tore through their building early Monday morning.
Multiple crews were called to a building on the corner intersection of Wealthy and Henry Street NE starting around 2 a.m. for an intense fire. Part of the building collapsed, but authorities said crews were able to keep the blaze from spreading to other businesses nearby.
The building on fire was home to Tatum Bookbinding Company, which had been there for more than 100 years. The bindery was created by Ed Tatum in 1912. In 1962, the McMullen family bought the business, and had been running it ever since. These days, it was run by Jim McMullen and his younger siblings, Christine and Mark.
"I think we're out of business," McMullen said. "I'm pretty sure of it. And it's sad."
McMullen and his siblings learned that their business was burning to the ground in the early hours Monday morning.
"Fire dispatch called us at home," he remembered, "and they said the building was on fire."
"When we headed down here to see what was going on, it was a mess," Jim added.
He said the three of them watched as firefighters tended to the building that was engulfed in flames.
"We saw the building collapse," he said. "There as so much water on the second floor from the hoses that it eventually collapsed the building."
No one was inside at the time, so luckily no injuries were reported.
"At one time, the water came down the stairway like Niagara Falls and blew the door out," Jim added.
The family-owned business was one-of-a-kind for the city of Grand Rapids, printing and binding in small quantities for individual and small publishers. The company specialized in quality cover materials including cloth, imitation leather and bonded leather, and did all of their work by hand, or with machines—some of which were nearly 100 years old and all destroyed in the fire.
"We essentially make books," said McMullen, "and we did a lot of paper processing for other printers. We do the weird stuff. So they'll print the insides and we'll make it into a book."
Monday's fire was devastating for their business because the building was an entire loss and once the fire was put out, crews were out for hours demolishing what was left.
"There's gonna be some people that are upset," McMullen said, "because some of their books burned up in there."
"I know there were three or four Bibles in there, too, that we had fixed," he added, "one that was waiting to be picked up on the day of the fire unfortunately."
McMullen said that one of the big jobs that also burned in the fire was a record book for the FAA on jet aircraft engines that are manufactured.
Lt. Bill Smith with the Grand Rapids Fire Department said that they don't know yet what caused the fire, but that detectives with the Grand Rapids Police Department were called in to help with the investigation.
He said that any fire of this extent warrants an investigation, but that they haven't been able to rule-out the human factor, meaning it's possible at this point that the fire could have been set intentionally.
"I don't know if it was targeted or not," McMullen said, "but there are nuts out there that set stuff on fire just for the glory of watching it."
"We're upset," he added, "but what can you do about it?"
Because this is an open and active investigation, investigators are asking anyone with any information about the fire to contact GRPD or GRFD at 616-456-3000 or Silent Observer at 616-774-2345.
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