Neighbors feared that a beloved East Detroit restaurant had caught on fire this morning, but that wasn't the whole story.
The Cadieux Café was safe, but there were two houses behind the restaurant that were set ablaze along Waveney, north of Mack and there was a man trapped inside one of them.
The fire originated in a vacant dwelling and spread to the neighboring house, where, according to Channel 4 WDIV, a man was still inside. Amarre Dabney, an off-duty firefighter, happened to be in the area as the fire was spreading.
After learning a man was still inside of the building, Dabney ran in multiple times before locating him and escorting him out of the blaze.
Monae Brown, who lives down the street from where the fire occurred was one of the first to see the fire that started around 9 a.m.
"I'm not sure what happened," Brown said, "I looked out my window, [one> house was already on fire. I called 911 and came outside and the other house had caught."
The Detroit Fire Department responded quickly and with a large amount of man power and equipment that had neighbors thinking that it was the café that was burning, but that wasn't the case.
Steve Lesniak, 9th Battalion Chief, said he prefers to be over prepared for all fire situations.
"The more the better," said Lesniak, "the guys are working hard. When they are working at these fires it takes a lot out of them. So with more guys, we can spread the work around."
While the Cadieux Café was left untouched, the fire had a severe impact on the buildings behind it.
The vacant building, where the fire originated, saw a majority of the damages. It was decimated from the inside out. The shell of the building is all that's left, the interior is charred to a crisp.
As for the house that was occupied, it suffered major damage to the exterior wall closest to the vacant building. A portion of the roof was burnt as well, but most of the house was untouched by the flames. More importantly, everyone was able to make it out of the house unharmed, thanks to the help of the Dabney.
Parked in between the two buildings was a van, which is now nothing more than a pile of scorched scrap metal and some tire remains.
Nobody was hurt in the incident and there are no updates on how the fire started, but investigators are still working to figure out the cause.
