DETROIT – The Detroit Fire Department is under fire for negligence claims, which has caused the fire commissioner to respond as to why firefighters were ordered out of an apartment fire when the crews were putting water on the fire.
DFD also says their firefighters saved lives at the fire that broke out on New Year’s night in Highland Park.
The result is that firefighters from three departments who were there are angry that a chief on the scene pulled the crews, water, and hoses while the fire was still raging Monday (Jan. 1) night on Tuxedo Street.
Read: ‘Pure negligence’ -- Highland Park fire chief criticizes Detroit crews leaving blaze
Local 4 tracked down the people who were burned out that night, and they said it should not have happened.
The families that were saved were surprised that DFD said they were saved from the fire, which was unbelievable as the fire department left them while the fire was still burning.
“If my husband didn’t make it, it would’ve been five bodies in the house,” said Sharon Mayhawk, who had her family burned out of the apartment fire.
Mayhawk says the only way to escape the fire that broke out in their Highland Park apartment was to drop her three children, ages five, three, and one, out of a second-floor window.
Her husband, Brandon Lightsey, caught each child and broke Mayhawk’s fall.
Mayhawk’s sister-in-law, Brittany Lightsey, who lives downstairs, said she walked out.
But DFD got to the fire first, and they said their firefighters that night saved their lives.
Shawn Ley: “Did the Detroit firefighters get you out of that house?”
Mayhawk: “No, my husband got us out of the house.”
Shawn Ley: “Did the Detroit firefighters get you out of that house?”
Lightsey: “No, absolutely not.”
On Thursday, Detroit Fire Commissioner Chuck Simms responded to the incident.
“Even if they saw them at the door and helped them out, they still assisted in getting them to safety,” said Simms.
Simms also stands behind the Detroit fire chief at the fire that night as his crew was the only crew inside putting water on the fire, and he told them to stop.
Video showed Detroit firefighters wrapping up gear as the fire raged behind them.
Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park firefighters told Local 4 that no water was being put on the fire at that moment.
“You’re pulling out like the main thing, this is somebody’s home,” Lightsey said. “Politics and all of that shouldn’t be included into it at all. “If you have water and tools to let the fire out, then that should be the first objective.”
Simms says the fire was in Highland Park and that Highland Park was taking command of the scene.
“A matter of fact, the lieutenant said that we’re not going to pickup until you have a charged line,” Simms said. “So I’m quite sure they did not leave that fire, and there was no water available to put out the fire.”
“Our lives are changed now because they were arguing about whose going to save who,” Lightsey said. “Like this fire department pull-out. It was a hot mess.”
A GoFundMe has been set up for a family who lost everything in the fire. You can donate here.
