Investigators are looking into what caused a major fire at a Southfield apartment complex Sunday evening. Flames tore through the building leaving nearly a dozen families without a place to live. Thankfully, no one was hurt.
“Flames were just shooting out. It was moving so fast,” said displaced resident, Lisa Vaughn.
It wasn’t easy for Vaughn to watch on as firefighters tried multiple times to douse the flames of a major fire that broke out at Sutton Place Apartments Sunday evening.
“We’re all displaced right now. No power, nothing - so it’s a terrible, terrible loss,” Vaughn added.
A total of 22 apartment and townhome were destroyed, displacing 11 families - leaving them only with the clothes on their backs.
“I just pray for my neighbors and hope that they everything will be okay for them,” Vaughn insisted.
For Monica Harris however, it feels like a case of DejaVu. Turns out the same unit caught on fire not too long ago.
“This is probably the second fire at least within that apartment building within the last year or so. Actually, they’ve just restored those apartments,” Harris recalled.
While the cause of this fire remains under investigation, Fire Chief Johnny Menifee says the Southfield fire department will take a closer look at the unfortunate trend.
“We’re going to look into these fires, look into the other fires, and so forth and see what we can do better education and risk management. We’re going to we’re going to look into that as we move forward,” said Menifee.
Red Cross and Salvation Army will be helping the families of those displaced.