DETROIT – One person is dead following an electrical fire at a high-rise senior apartment building in downtown Detroit.
Two others were transported to the hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation.
The fire broke out at the Kamper Stevens Apartments on Monday (Aug. 12).
Katherine Gist, who lives on the 21st floor, said she was cooking in her kitchen when the power went out.
“The alarm came on and was saying, ‘Everybody, it’s an emergency, everybody needs to leave out the building.’”
Gist says she moved back in on Thursday.
She was just one of the building’s 112 residents who chose to stay in a hotel provided by apartment management after all four elevators stopped working.
Residents then contacted Local 4 with their safety concerns.
One of the elevators is working as repair work continues on the others.
Gist took the stairs all the way down from the 21st floor.
“You should have seen them people coming down those stairs,” Gist said. “It was sad; they couldn’t move fast; they had to take their time.”
The person who died was a resident; their body was discovered in the stairwell.
The cause of death has not yet been determined.
As of 11 p.m. Monday, much of the building remained without power. Crews worked to restore power, offering residents a room at a nearby hotel.
“An electrical fire occurred today at the Louis Kamper Building, a senior housing property in downtown Detroit. During the ensuing evacuation, two residents were transported to the hospital, and a third died at the property. The building’s owners and management are devastated to learn of the death of one their residents, and are cooperating with authorities to investigate the cause of the fire. Electricity has been restored to a portion of the building, and contractors onsite working to restore power to the balance of the units as soon as possible. In the meantime, ownership is providing accommodations to the remaining the residents.”
Kamper Stevens Apartment Management