Teen Rescues Man, 2 Women Killed In Detroit House Fire
DETROIT (WWJ) - A Detroit man narrowly escaped his burning home with his life — but without his wife and daughter.
Two women were killed Monday morning when a fire ripped through the house, on Wilfred Street near Gunston and Gratiot, on Detroit's east side.
Fire officials say 62-year-old Charles Harris was rescued by a 15-year-old neighbor, but the two women — ages 57 and 32 — didn't make it.
Harris said he yelled for his family to follow him out of the smoke-filled home after his daughter ran down the stairs shouting, "There's a fire!"
"When I ran towards the back door, they never did follow me," Harris WWJ City Beat Reporter Vickie Thomas. "And when I got to the back door the young fellow was there trying to get in."
That young fellow, TJ Williams, told Thomas he'd come in from shoveling snow when he spotted the flames next door and jumped into action.
"I told him to step back, I'm gonna knock down the door, and I knocked down the whole door," Williams said. "Once I knocked down the whole door I came in there, got a t-shirt, put it on his nose and his mouth and brung (sic) him out."
Detroit Fire Chief Robert Valgoy said his crews pulled the two women from the home, but it was too late.
"They were downstairs, first floor — one was in the bedroom, one was in the hallway," Valgoy said. "We had to through a window because, as you can see, the porch fell down so we couldn't go through the front door."
Harris said he has no idea how the fire started.
"I didn't think nothin' like this would ever happen to me," he added.
Arson investigators were on the scene, but they said the fire did not appear suspicious.
