With video: Blaze guts former Pinball Pete's near the University of Michigan campus

There was a photo published earlier on this article. Why was it removed?

I just passed by, going south on Washtenaw. There was smoke everywhere!

@umtrey has been live tweeting with photos. It doesn't look under control yet, and U Towers has caught fire.
http://twitter.com/umtrey

A friend got a text message about the fire so I just drove down to see what was going on, it looked more under control now then it did when the picture on this article was taken. I didnt see any flames at around 11:50. Lots of students were on the streets.

A comment was removed from this entry because it contained a personal attack.

The University leases office space in University Tower, where I work. I hope the fire didn't spread that far.

I'm thinking momo tea should change their name to "no-mo' tea."

Why would anyone drive down to a fire to "see what's going on?" Gawkers only get in the way and really have no business there.

This is a sad story but congratulations on some really excellent photographs. Very dramatic work that captures the scene well!

Great photos! Props to Ms. Evaskis and her keen eye.

The Michigan Daily has a story with a few more photos:

http://michigandaily.com/content/late-night-blaze-ravages-south-university-avenue-building?page=0,0

It notes that Susan Eklund, the University’s Dean of Students, is assisting students displaced by the fire, and that a number of people stayed in University Towers after the fire alarm rang in that building for up to half an hour until they were evacuated by police officers.

How many firefighters does the city want to lay off?

My memory of that building is a bit different: 1973 was the year before I moved to Ann Arbor and my fiance was showing me the Ann Arbor Street Art Fairs. We were on the S. University "leg" and I saw students sitting up on that "balcony" the firefighters are on in the fire video. I asked for and got permission to come up and take photos of the Art Fair from there. The friendliness and relaxed attitude toward complete strangers as well as the "privileged view" was one of the things which made me want (even more) to become an A2 resident.

So I'll miss that building - we still would point it out to friends and relatives who came into town to visit us. Last winter, we showed it (along with Middle Earth) to my daughter's new husband who's from California. Sad - one more bit of Ann Arbor's quirky charm is gone.

@Paul;
Did you READ the story? It is the former Pinball Pete's, currently vacant.

@Fred and Barney: I didn't see any report of a manpower shortage or a comment by the chief that there were not enough men in reserve. Can you point that out? I must have missed it.

How many firefighters does the city want to lay off?

Great example Fred & Barney!! A2 depends way too much on other communities like Pittsfield to help out during a serious fire. Maybe this fire should be used to demonstrate just how cushy the "sacred cows" of the Fire Department have it. Oh yeah! Lets also throw in the "what if" scenario of this fire being at U Towers or the fire spreading into U Towers. YEP CUT THE FIRE DEPARTMENTS BUDGET!!

EyeHeartA2... The chief isn't going to talk about that stuff during an active fire. The FD isn't there to politic. That's why we have the people in grand new city hall to lie to us. The previous articles said they have around 90 people. That's over 3 'shifts'. So figure a little under 30 people per day. Now factor out the administrative positions, or non-firefighting positions. Now they want to layoff 14, and tell us we'll be fine? That was the same comment to us when they got rid of all the police. Still believe that things are 'fine'? Or better yet, "Service will be the same as it was." Now they're applying the same failed logic to the fire department. I know if I'm in a burning building I don't want to wait for OTHER COMMUNITIES to get here to help.

Cut that budget to the bone. Better to rely on the cooperative efforts of multiple fir departments than to have a firehall of fighters watching TV and reading Playboy.

Why can't firefighters be cross trained to mow grass in the summer and operate snow plows in the winter???????

With tax revenues drying up due to the failed Obama economic policies the old days are over and new ideas are needed to stretch the tax dollar.

Shouldn't it be made clearer: the building which burned down is not the current Pinball Pete's. That business is "alive and well" across the street on South U. I know the headline says "former" but the rest of the story offers no explanation about the actual status of PP's. It's confusing even to A2 natives who may not have kept up with the perambulations of that particular business. After all, the sign on the burned building is clearly not identifying the subject business.

BTW - I went over there this morning to take photos and video of the aftermath. All is quiet and now is a good time to get such a record for those of us interested in Ann Arbor history. I DID remember to take one short video clip of the still-standing Pinball Pete's across the street: for the same reason I mention above. (I'll be sending the pics & video to my daughter who grew up in Ann Arbor and I don't want her to get confused about these details.)

@Tru2Blu76 - Thanks, we added some clarification, and we're doing a follow up story today that will have more history on the old Pinball Pete's building.

AAFD was totally all over that, nice work!

There's a very brief Fox 2 News story w/video clip

http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/news/local/Fire_Former_Pinball_Petes

with post-fire video and one interview with a U Towers resident who again spoke of the slow evacuation of that building.

Thank goodness no one was hurt. Every fall the beat officers would have to run off squatters inside lighting fires for warmth. No more beat officers. Budget cuts. Hopefully they got enough tickets written last night.

Good riddance.

Ah, fond memories, back in the day it was Double Focus, Great Escape right across the street and the Campus Theatre, and can't forget Morellis right around the corner, great subs.

OK. So the story here is that a building burned down, the fire was quickly put under control and didn't spread. That is what the article said. Somehow this spun into "if we cut 14 people (4.6/shift) Which means that each firehouse loses, about 1/person per shift, we are all in dire danger.

Not sure how those dots got connected, but I'm not buying it.

My favorite memory of this place is that when my friends and I first started venturing downtown in middle school during the late '90s this place—which was still in operation and housing the older video game cabinets—had a pop machine that required only a quarter for a tall glass of anything you wanted. We'd stop by heading downtown and heading home to save money for more CDs at Record Exchange and Tower Records.

They want to lay off more firefighters and something like this happens to prove to the Mayor he needs to admit that he is a Republican in disguise, what if his home was engulfed in flames and there was not enough firefighters to put out his fire? Bet, the firefighter would all be back! This is a SIN as this stupid new budget cut is a sentence for death of the very people these Mayor is sworn to protect. Keep our Firefighters and get rid of the so-called Mayor because none of us are no longer safe.

I have been here in town so long, I thought the former Pinball Pete's was on William across from Cottage Inn. So glad to have on-line news with blogs and political mud slinging instead of local journalism with facts checked!

The building that burned was originally known as Pinball Alley in the 70's back in the real heyday of pinball when you could use body english and had rotating wheels to mark score and could turn the score over and also it cost a quarter for 4 games. Then in the 80's it became Campus Pinball. Pinball petes took it over in the 90's and expanded to the William st. location before consolidating to it's present location, across from where the fire occurred at the old Campus Theater location, which was rebuilt into the mall-like configuration that it is today.

Another part of my childhood up in smoke.

All of you trash talkers haven't a clue. You rant about something like the know-nothings you are. This fire was contained and the situation was handled. No one died, no one was injured, the firefighters responded professionally and did a good job.

I don't see where you get the idea that at any time "none of us are no longer safe" (sic).

Get off your soapboxes. The fire is over.

It's funny. The same people that complain that everything is fine and just make the cuts are the same people that will be the first to complain with the police or fire take longer than the 'normal' to get somewhere. Some people just like to be blind all their lives and aren't happy unless they're complaining about something. Well, have at it I suppose. When you house gets broken into well then hey.... "get off your soapboxes..." the break-in is over.

@Bear - I could have sworn I was using body english on the pinball machines in the 70's at Pinball Pete's on William, but perhaps I was confused. I do remember playing pinball on William and then going across the street to Cottage Inn before it was redecorated - it was just a little diner, and we drank cokes all afternoon until the manager sent us out so he could have our booth for the dinner rush.

I worked there for six years, before the opening of the current Pinball Pete's. We had three locations: S. University, E. William and Packard. And being a kid from the 80s, I recall Cross-Eyed Moose, Micky Rats and Double Focus in those locations before Pinball Pete's, respectively.
Wasn't the best of jobs, but having a job in high school and afterwards was good by me. You work at on PP, you worked at all of them.
See ya, S. U. Pete's.

Don't forget Simulation Station

@Inside The Hall... I'm sure you haven't volunteered to be crosstrained to do anything at all besides push whatever paper it is you push! Your brilliant plan is for people who work 24 or 48 hour shifts to work all of those hours straight with no rest, to be away from their stations/fire trucks so they cannot respond to emergency calls immediately, thereby increasing response times to fires, heart attack victims, car accident scenes, etc. You my friend are brilliant and I think we should put you in charge of everything. OR, better yet, lets start budget cuts with your job, I'm sure you wouldn't mind helping contain the budget and losing YOUR JOB? Since you don't mind 14 other people losing theirs?

How did the fire start?

There used to be Mickey Rat's (on William), which was one of the Pinball Pete's locations in 1991. It's upstairs above where NYPD is now; I think an architect is in that spot. My notes from the time say "grungy floor, currently 6 or 7 pins in good condition.
whirlwind, fire, earthshaker, pinbot, rollergames, simpsons.
pinball pete knocked down a lot of walls to put in more machines."

In 1991 Pinball Pete's on South U, was in the old house that just burned. Notes again: "5 or 6 pins also in good condition though some of the places they put them have non-level floors (so it seems). includes diner, elvira, another whirlwind, another simpsons, taxi."

I played a lot of pinball in my misspent youth....

The place looked like a fire trap. Wonder if there's a possibility of arson or if vagrants were living in the building.

I just remember going to the location at the corner of Williams and Maynard from 83' to 87'. Can't recall if at that time it was called Pinball Pete's or Mickey Rats but I really did enjoy myself there then. Nothing like a cold drink in the middle of the summer for only a quarter. Great memories!

My brother worked at its first incarnation, Pinball Alley, in the mid-70s. This meant he had a key to the "back room" and thus was very popular. The smoke was thick. I remember it being my favorite place to play because of the many rooms, and the upstairs. I also liked Cross-Eyed Moose on Liberty, which used to post the records on index cards on each machine. Also Tommy's on Packard and State in the early 80s was cool. Long hot summers in Ann Arbor when pinball was king!

Before pinball, wasn't this building the Student Book Service (related to Ned's in Ypsi), which sold books below the prices of the bookstore oligopoly of the late 60's ?

Pinball Pete's and Mickey Rats! Good times!