A police officer who had just finished working a long night shift. A wife who finally got to snuggle in bed next to her husband. A son who would have started fifth grade today.
All three -- 39-year-old Michael, 40-year-old Lorna and 10-year-old Hayden Waleskowski -- died Sunday when a fire ripped through their two-story home in Waterford at about 6:45 a.m.
And as the news swept through that tight-knit community, another neighborhood in west Detroit grappled with similar news: Two young girls, reportedly sisters, were killed in a blaze on Tireman.
Both fires remain under investigation. Arson investigators were on the scene in Detroit, but Waterford officials said they so far have no reason to suspect foul play in the blaze that apparently killed the Waleskowskis.
"There are a lot of unanswered questions," said Waterford Police Sgt. Barry Hague. "There is a lot of damage for us to go through."
As fire and police officials combed through the blackened house Sunday, neighbors gathered on the sidewalks to learn what happened to the young family.
Several people said the Waleskowskis had lived in their corner colonial home on Meadowview Drive for at least 10 years. Some said they often spotted the three strolling the neighborhood with their small dog. Neighborhood children stopped by to see what happened to Hayden, the boy with the dimpled smile and bright blue eyes who would have started fifth grade at Haviland Elementary School today. They talked of how he regularly wore a tool belt like his dad and helped out on household projects.
John Bojczyk, who lives across the street from the Waleskowskis, said he was asleep when his wife noticed flames shooting out of the home's windows.
He ran across the street with his 16-year-old son, he said, and tried to get in the front door.
Other neighbors came to help, too. They didn't know if the family was home, Bojczyk said, so they threw rocks at the upstairs windows in hopes of rousing anyone sleeping inside.
"People were screaming, 'Fire! Fire!' " Bojczyk said. "I couldn't get to the front door. The flames were too high."
He grabbed a garden hose from the side of the home and sprayed the door, he said. The flames had dropped to about ankle height, so Bojczyk braced to bust down the door -- but then he heard bullets firing.
"I put two and two together and realized it might be ammunition," he said, looking from the sidewalk at the charred and gaping holes in the back of the home. "I had my son with me. I couldn't go in."
Neighbors stood by helplessly as they heard the second-story roof cave in.
Hague said he also heard reports of gunshots from within the house, but he said he didn't know if Michael Waleskowski regularly took his gun home with him.
Hague described Officer Mike, as he was known around his neighborhood, as a hard-working family man who was quick to crack jokes.
But he took his job seriously: In September 2003, he asked the news media for help in identifying a Jane Doe left in a coma after a hit-and-run accident. His diligence helped reunite the woman, who had been missing, with her worried family.
The officer had been with the Waterford Police Department for nearly five years. Before that, he worked for 12 years as an officer in Orchard Lake. While there, he arrested former Channel 7 anchor Bill Bonds on drunken-driving charges in 1994.
Hague said Waleskowski worked the midnight shift and helped investigate fatal accidents. He'd finished working on the road about 4 a.m. Sunday and likely wrapped up his paperwork an hour or so later, Hague said.
The officers on the scene were struggling with losing one of their own, he added.
"Everybody's human," he said, his eyes dropping. "But we still have a job to do."
Three firefighters sustained minor injuries putting out the blaze. The home was engulfed when they arrived, Hague said, but they were able to control the fire within 15 minutes. The bodies were discovered in their upstairs bedrooms.
Meanwhile, Detroit police and firefighters continued investigating the 6:30 a.m. blaze that left two young girls dead. The oldest girl was 5; police gave conflicting ages for the younger girl. Officer Derek Jones, a Detroit police spokesman, said the youngsters were sisters. Their names were not released Sunday.
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