GREAT NORTHERN MOTEL

MERCER, WIS., Volunteer Fire Department vehicles sit outside the Great Northern Motel in Mercer Wednesday morning. Firefighters, EMS and power company workers responded to the scene after the report of fire. An official on the scene said squirrels caused a fire in a transformer on the top of a utility pole standing on a neighboring property. A power surge traveled across lines and into the wall on the ground floor of the hotel, causing a table chair to start on fire. He said no one was injured and personnel from Mercer and other area fire departments were sweeping the entire building with thermal imaging cameras, looking for fire in the wall.