Hugh Cook Jr. has seen a lot of odd situations as a member of the Leelanau Township Fire and Rescue Department.

On Tuesday, he witnessed another oddity that could have resulted in a serious house fire.

Cook, the fire chief, and about 10 members of the department responded to what was called in as a house fire. When the first responders arrived at the scene on Omena Point Road, they found something very different.

“It is one of the strangest things I have ever seen,” Cook said.

Builders were inside the house at 5124 N. Omena Point Rd. taking a break when they smelled something burning. Outside they saw a small amount of smoke coming out of the roof. Cook said workers called 911 and units responded from Northport, Peshawbestown, Leland, Lake Leelanau and Suttons Bay.

There was no visible sign of a fire, but the soffit on the underside of the roof’s eve showed burn marks along a 15-foot section. As a precaution, Cook had the section of roof watered down. “We got out the thermal imaging camera and ran it along the area to make sure there weren’t any hot spots,” he said.

Directly below the section of the roof is a sun porch with a glass top. Cook said it appeared the sun’s rays reflecting off the glass top were magnified, resulting in the soffit being charred. “You look at it and you can see the soffit is charred along that stretch. It’s very strange,” Cook said.