DETROIT (WWJ) -- Nearly two dozen senior residents who were displaced by a fire at their apartment complex earlier this week are receiving help from the city as they figure out their next steps.
A four-alarm fire tore through the Rev. Ann Johnson Elderly Apartment building on Mack Avenue between Springle and Gray Streets Monday night, completely destroying the building and leaving more than 50 people homeless. Many lost all of their material possessions.
Officials say 23 of the residents who had expressed a need for help, got just that from the city of Detroit and the Department of Health and Human Services. They are being housed at Rivertown Inn and Suites on Jefferson Avenue near Rivard Street, where they are getting all sorts of help, according to Human Services Manager David Bowser.
"We're using our connections with human services to provide food, as the seniors are staying there at Rivertown. We have lunches and dinners being delivered. We're making runs to pharmacies in the area so the seniors can get the medication that were lost in the fire," Bowser told WWJ's Stephanie Davis.
The Red Cross is also pitching in to help out.
The mayor's office helped to coordinate bus rides from the Detroit Department of Transportation from the gutted senior living facility to Rivertown.
Three residents suffered non-life-threatening injuries during Monday night's fire, while two police officers suffered smoke inhalation and one firefighter suffered heat-related injury. Officials believe the fire may have started outside the building and the wind blew flames inside, though an official cause of the fire has not been released.
