DETROIT (WWJ) - One woman is dead after her Detroit home was engulfed in flames early Wednesday morning, fire officials confirmed -- and a security feature on her windows maybe to blame for trapping her inside.
WWJ's Mike Campbell reported live from the scene on Orleans Street near Robinwood, south off Seven Mile and east of I-75, in Detroit where a brick bungalow home broke out in flames just before 3 a.m.
"The interior is completely gutted," Campbell said of the house. "A woman... was trapped inside, they say, by the bars on the doors and on the windows."
A neighbor told Campbell he was letting his dog out in his yard early in the morning when he noticed something was wrong.
"I was smelling stuff like coming from that right next door, so I let my dog back in," the neighbor explained. "I was talking with my brothers and I know she stayed in her house by herself, her son did pass like a few months ago. So like we do help her, we do help her and all everything, do everything for her. If her family never ain't nobody over there, we help her."
The neighbor and his brothers told Campbell they had tried to kick the door in and break the windows, but they were unable to get inside.
Campbell reported that he could see security bars on some of the exterior doors of the home and on the windows.
When Detroit firefighters arrived on scene, they encountered the same obstacles, but were eventually able to enter the home and pull the woman, who Fire Chief James Harris said was in her 90s, out.
Campbell said she was rushed to a local hospital, but the woman was pronounced dead.
Fire investigators were at the scene with an arson detection dog, searching for accelerants and searching the area for clues as to how the fire started.
At this time, the cause of the fatal blaze remains unknown. No other details were released.
This is a developing story. Stay tuned to WWJ LIVE for the latest updates.
