DETROIT – An elderly couple was killed early Thursday morning in a fire on Detroit’s west side.
“Woke up this morning to sirens, and they were getting closer and closer,” neighbor Portia Dalley said. “As I came outside, I also noticed someone screaming in the driveway. Looks like the normal caretaker that comes over. It was definitely very sad. A lot of the neighbors were outside just wondering what was going on with all the noise and everything.”
Neighbors said the two had lived in the home on Cherokee Avenue for decades.
“Just good people,” neighbor Jetty Wells said. “Always spoke to everybody. Always participated in all the meetings.”
“Lovely older couple,” Dalley said. “They definitely liked doing things around the house all the time -- cleaning up and things like that. Definitely always spoke to anyone, whether you pass by or are walking in the car. She was always waving.”
Fire officials said one person died on the scene and the other was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. The cause of the fire however, remains a mystery.
The flames are suspected to have sparked somewhere in the basement. They filled the home with smoke.
“I didn’t think anything when I saw the steam,” Wells said. “But when I got the call from one of my neighbors across the street, she says, ‘There’s smoke coming out from underneath.’ And I’m saying, ‘What?’ If you looked at the windows real close, you could see that they looked like they were dirty, and her windows were never dirty.”
This couple really cared about their community, neighbors said. In return, the community is very concerned about them. They’re waiting to learn what led to the fire, as officials continue to investigate.