House fire survivor tells his story, thanks first responders

GREENWOOD TWP- Five years ago, on Oct. 27, an explosion leveled the Gramse home on Everett Bay Rd. on Lake Vermilion. At Tuesday’s Greenwood Town Board meeting, survivor Mike Gramse (at right) thanked the Greenwood First Responders and Fire Department, and presented the township with a $5,000 donation in appreciation for their efforts, along with a first-person account of the tragedy.
“Five years ago, my house exploded and burnt to the ground,” Gramse began. “My wife Eva was killed.”
Gramse recounted he had gotten out of bed and gone into the main room to turn the thermostat up when the house exploded.
“It just blew,” he said. “My wife was still in the bedroom. My leg had a big timber through it.”
Unable to walk, he could see that his wife was still in the bedroom, but it was all rubble.
“It was obvious she was gone,” he said.
The explosion had blown away most of the walls.
Drifting in and out of consciousness, he tried to figure out what to do. He knew he had to get out of the burning house.
“I came to, and I was where our kitchen door used to be,” he said. With only one working leg, he crawled across the rubble.
“For some reason, God gave me the wherewithal to know what direction to go,” he said.
He rolled off the edge of the house and crawled through a patch of woods towards his neighbor’s house.
“I was waiting for someone to find me,” he said. “But the neighbors were gone for the season.”
He isn’t sure how long he laid on the ground until someone came.
Luckily, some friends were driving down the road, saw smoke, and drove down their driveway.
“They saw our house was gone.”
The friend called Gramse’s brother and told him that Mike and Eva had passed away. But then his friend’s wife, walking around, heard Mike calling out.
“She found me and covered me up with a coat.”
Soon, Greenwood First Responders arrived, and shortly after, fire trucks.
“They took care of me,” he said.
First aid at the scene likely saved his life. His leg injury required two tourniquets to stop the bleeding.
Gramse’s children and extended family were with him at the meeting, and as he teared up telling the story, some came to stand by his side.
Gramse was flown to Duluth to St. Mary’s, where he was treated for major injuries.
He had second-degree burns from my shoulders to his neck, second-degree burns on his hand and left knee, head wounds, and his leg was nearly torn off. Crawling through the woods left pine needles and dirt in open wounds, with high risk for infection. He spent a month in the hospital, and went home the day before Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving was always celebrated with their extended family at the cabin, he said with tears in his eyes, and he wasn’t ready to confront that loss, but his children insisted and hosted the gathering.
“I really don’t know how I got out that rubble,” he said. “I knew my wife was gone. She would have gone straight to heaven. I feel she was with God and was directing me where to go and what to do.”
Gramse said his recovery wasn’t physically painful.
“God was watching over me,” he said, “and my wife.”
While the house was in ruins, firefighters contained the blaze and were able to recover the remains of his wife.
The family cabin is now rebuilt. And the fire department actually made one more trip out, to check on a possible gas leak.
“Brian Trancheff and Jeff Maus came and checked it out,” he said.
Gramse’s daughter Shelley also gave her thanks to the township.
“Thanks to all of you,” she said. “We really appreciate all that Greenwood Township does for everybody. There is a lot of good here.” She then went over and gave Trancheff, now Greenwood’s Fire Chief, a hug.
Trancheff’s turn on the agenda came soon after, and he noted it was a little tough getting up to speak after listening to Gramse.
The department responded to six fire calls last month, including one structure fire where they were able to save the structure as most of the contents.
“The contents are the things you don’t get back,” he said. It isn’t often that rural departments are able to save a structure. He noted this was the third structure save the department had this year.
“Our training is paying off,” he said. “We are using more aggressive tactics.”
The department also responded to six EMS calls. Trancheff, assistant chief Brianna Lofquist, and one other member recently completed leadership training. Another department member, Lucas Nygren, passed his EMR training and is starting wildland firefighter training.
Trancheff asked residents to be prepared for the winter heating season.
“Think about checking your smoke detectors and servicing your furnace.”
“I don’t ever want to see anything like this (the Gramse house explosion) happen again.”
He also reminded residents that monitoring and alarm systems also need to be serviced.
The board approved rehiring former department members Rick Worringer and Jim Galonski, pending background checks and physicals.
Former chair and supervisor Sue Drobac spoke at the beginning of the meeting, and asked board members to review previous correspondence from the two from the time the board appointed Maus as chief, against the wishes of other department members. She also hand-delivered an application for firefighter membership from Jeff Maus to the town board.
Firewise
The township is holding a community wildfire strategic planning workshop on Wednesday, Oct. 28 from 5 – 7 p.m. at the town hall. This meeting is open to all Greenwood landowners who are interested in helping to identify wildfire concerns and priorities, and help create an action plan to address these. The meeting will be facilitated by Teresa Floberg and Abby Andrus from Dovetail Partners. For more information you can email firewise@dovetailinc.org or visit the township website at greenwoodslcmn.gov.
The rest of the meeting will be detailed in the paper next week.