3 Firefighters Injured Fighting East Side Detroit House Fire

DETROIT (WWJ) - Three firefighters were hurt Wednesday morning while on the job in a neighborhood on Detroit's east side.

Jessica Gross said she and her two kids, along with four other adults, were in the home on Montclair near I-94 when the fire broke out — but they all escaped unharmed. Three dogs also made it out OK.

"I was actually asleep and I heard, 'It's a fire!'" Gross said. "I got up and ran to see what was going on. My boyfriend was up there trying to put it out; he had the water hose...He was putting it out, but the smoke got too thick for him."

Gross said it took too long for firefighters to arrive, get hooked up to water and put the fire out.

Senior Fire Chief Larry Gassel disputes that.

"There were no water problems; there was nothing like that," Gassel told WWJ's Mike Campbell. "Guys got hurt! We had guys getting hurt. What do you mean there was not enough being done?"

Three firefighters were taken to Detroit Receiving Hospital for treatment of what were described as non-life-threatening burns.

Campbell said he'd heard that one of the injured firefighters may be a female trainee, although that was not immediately confirmed by Detroit fire officials.

No names have been released.

(credit: Mike Campbell/WWJ)

The cause of the fire is under investigation.