DETROIT (WWJ) – A local photographer was on his way home Friday afternoon when he spotted a house fire and stumbled into a viral social media photo.
Here's how it started: Cary Longchamps says he saw smoke on his drive home on Detroit’s east side and decided to stop by to see what was happening.
When he got to the house on Holcomb Street, just off Forest Avenue, fire crews were working to put the fire out and he jumped into action to get some shots.
“I'm a local photographer here in the city, so I'm always looking for unique shots,” Longchamps told WWJ.
He got a pretty unique shot, indeed.
“I noticed this gentleman cooking hotdogs on the other side of the street, and of course I had to get a shot of that as well,” he said.
Little did he know, the photo was just waiting to blow up on Twitter.
After posting the picture with the caption “Tell me you live in Detroit, without telling me you live in Detroit... I'll go first,” another Twitter user, @Ohokayfairenuff, shared the photo with another caption.
“A man using house fire embers to start up a BBQ. I present to Twitter the most Detroit thing I have ever seen with my own two eyes,” the viral tweet said.
The post went viral, racking up more than 1,500 retweets, 13,000 likes and countless witty comments.
Perhaps to the disappointment of many online, Longchamps says that wasn’t actually the case. A block party was already underway in the area, and “neighbors were already out cooking food and doing their thing.”
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So, while the BBQ wasn’t actually started with embers from the fire, many on Twitter didn’t seem to think it was too far fetched. And they agreed the moment had a very special Detroit quality to it.
“The Isiah Thomas jersey is the cherry on top of this photo,” one user wrote.
“Nothing keeps a Detroiter down,” another said.
Longchamps said while the viral tweet may have been “a little click-bait-ish,” he did get a shoutout from the user who posted it and he got a good laugh out of it.
Longchamps has a collection of stunning images from all over Detroit posted to his Instagram page, zero5four.
It's not clear what started the fire or whether the home was occupied at the time of the blaze. Detroit fire officials did not report any injuries in a fire on Holcomb over the weekend.