PONTIAC, Mich. – Multiple people are recovering after a fire ripped through an apartment complex in Pontiac.
The fire occurred Tuesday afternoon at the Arborview Village Apartments on Leonard Lane near M-59 and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
The fact that everyone survived the massive damage is a huge miracle in itself.
“You don’t expect an apartment to just blow up out of nowhere,” said Tanqurae Green.
“It could have been any of our houses,” said Marniqua Rodgers.
On Wednesday (Nov. 9), five people were recovering after a massive fire at the Arborview Village Apartment Complex in Pontiac.
Green said she felt and then heard it all taking place.
“It shook my whole house,” said Green. “All my neighbors were running. So I’m like, ‘What’s going on?’ I thought that someone ran into the building with their car or whatever.”
Other residents like Rodgers say it was a significant explosion that rocked the complex out of nowhere around 12:40 p.m. on Tuesday.
“A boom,” Rodgers said. “And then I just seen all the fire. I was just like, ‘Oh my God.’ It was like a shake.”
Two of the five people injured ended up being treated in a burn unit. Neighbors say one woman, in particular, was knocked out of the building but went back inside for her baby.
“It was her, her nephew, and somebody else,” Green said. “They were blown out of the apartment.”
The official cause of the fire has yet to be revealed, but multiple residents say there was a strong gas smell shortly before the explosion happened.
Either way, so many people are lucky Wednesday to be alive.
“I just felt bad because I knew the girl that lived here,” Rodgers said. “I’m just praying for her family. I’m just happy that she made it out alive.”
All the families in the unit have had to be displaced. But thankfully, they are still alive.
