DETROIT – Dozens of residents were forced out of their homes after an arson fire at an apartment complex in Detroit.
Many residents in the 62-unit Viceroy Apartments on Heritage Place were able to escape the fire on their own Tuesday morning.
However, some of the residents on the top floors needed firefighters to come get them as the flames raged in the 4th-floor hallway.
The fire burned through the 3rd and 4th floors in the back corner of the building. Cindy Dowdy's husband was on his way to work at about 4 a.m. when he saw the flames and something more sinister: the likely arsonists.
"He ran into them," said Dowdy. "A man had a gas can and he had a mask, and there was girl with him but she didn't have on a mask. And that's when (my husband) ran back up and told me to get my clothes and get down."
Back, front doors doused with gas
Detroit Fire Department Chief Gene Biondo said the arsonists were "heartless." Biondo said they doused the front and back doors to the building with gasoline.
"Well, you're covering the back and the front -- that's an intent to kill or hurt somebody -- and you didn't want people to get out of here. The only way out was to come up through the windows," said Biondo.
The American Red Cross was out there Tuesday morning offering help to the displaced residents. The city of Detroit is opening the Joseph Walker Williams Recreation Center as a shelter. Most of the residents weren't going there just yet.
"Everybody's just king of waiting because we don't want to leave and then people work their way in and steal all our stuff. That's where we're at now with it -- nobody wants to leave, that's all we have!" said Dowdy.
3rd fire in recent days
This was the third fire in the area in the past two days. The Viceroy Apartments residents and the fire department were expecting another fire. Fire officials actually visited the building on Monday to make a firefighting plan, which they executed Tuesday morning.
Fortunately, no one has been seriously injured.
Reward offered for information
Now investigators are trying to track down the arson suspects. A $5,000 reward is being offered to anyone with information on this fire.
Anyone who may be able to help in the investigation needs to call investigators at the following tip line: 313-628-2900.