A small fire broke out inside the mobile sauna parked at Traverse City State Park along US-31 on Thursday evening.
“It looks like there was a board that was too close to the stove,” said Dan Sarya, owner of MI Sauna. “It got too hot and it started to smolder and when we walked away we didn’t notice it.”
Sarya says the sauna was empty at the time and no one was harmed. He says the wooden seating area has been damaged, but more by smoke than by fire.
“The boards will have to be replaced,” Sarya said. “But the structure is, itself, going to be just fine.”
Sarya designed and built the sauna by hand with help from family and friends in 2020.
The company was getting ready to add a second sauna to the same location, and that plan is still in motion. Sarya says they’re aiming to reopen with the second sauna on May 19 while the smoke-damaged one is repaired.
“I’m just really thankful for the sauna community as a whole,” he said. “It’s amazing, the people who are coming out of the woodwork saying [they] can help.”
He says he plans to make modifications and tweaks during repairs to prevent risk of fires in the future.
