Florida pastor says he’s ‘rethinking’ canceled Quran burning

“There’s no fire bug here,” Detroit Fire Department Capt. Steve Varnas told the Detroit Free Press as he surveyed the damage from a blaze in the area of Van Dyke and 7 Mile that had claimed at least 17 structures. “Throughout the whole city, the same thing is happening: Wires down everywhere.”

High winds were causing dead limbs to fall from trees, knocking down the wires which have been igniting, Varnas said.

Winds were gusting to 35 mph and humidity was low, said The Detroit News.

On the east side, a vacant commercial building on Hendrie and Dubois streets caught fire just before 5 p.m., said WDIV, the NBC TV affiliate in Detroit.

On the west side, fires were reported on Curtis Street and Livernois Avenue, and on Plainview Avenue and Evergreen Road.

No injuries have been reported.

DTE Energy said late Tuesday evening that it had 42,000 customers without power, WDIV reported.

Ian Perrotta told the Free Press that he noticed a fire in his neighbor’s Moenart garage on the northeast side; three hours later his own garage, several houses away, was ablaze.

“My immediate thought when I saw the fire was it shouldn’t have been that bad,” Perrotta, a former firefighter, told the News. “It could have been contained sooner.”

Perrotta said it took more than 30 minutes for police and fire to arrive.

Doris Lee and her husband, Ernest Lee, told the Free Press they are devastated after watching their house in the 12300 block of Moenart on Detroit’s northeast side go up in flames.

“I was changing clothes for work when I heard my neighbor knocking on the door saying ‘Get out, get out,’” Doris Lee said. “We’ve lost everything. We just left with the clothes on our backs.”

story by msnbc

Share on Facebook

0 Comments

Filed under: News & Updates