Jan. 20--A body was found during a house fire on Detroit's west side that was the first in a series of at least six blazes from Wednesday evening overnight into Thursday.
Detroit firefighters discovered the body at 9:19 p.m. Wednesday inside a room engulfed in flames at 8687 Brace, in the neighborhood southwest of Joy Road and the Southfield Freeway, Arson Unit Lt. Dennis Richardson said. The Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office was working to identify the person and determine the cause of death.
By 5 a.m. Thursday, two vacant homes on Brace had been set ablaze, along with vacant homes on Penrod, Artesian and at the corner of Constance and Ashton, Richardson said.
"It could be a combination of things," Richardson said. "It could be someone going around setting fires. But that first house was not vacant -- it was occupied. Normally, they don't mix houses like that."
Investigators discovered evidence of a marijuana-growing operation that had been mostly removed from the first home, Richardson said.
A woman who was cleaning out the home where the first fire broke out said Thursday she was waiting for confirmation that the victim is her 30-year-old son, who lived there. She declined to talk about the fire or her son, and said she didn't want to give his name until a ruling from the medical examiner's office.
Brace resident Nitasha Sherman, 39, said she is scared after the death and the fires in her neighborhood.
"I don't feel safe, for the simple fact my house could be next," she said. "My neighbor's house could be next. Any one of these houses over here could be next. And that's scary."
One firefighter suffered minor injuries on Artesian and was treated and released from a hospital, Richardson said.
After the first fire on Brace, fires occurred at 10:16 p.m. at 8266 Artesian, 10:37 p.m. at 8447 Brace, 11:49 p.m. at 8273 Penrod, 11:57 p.m. at Ashton and Constance and 4:38 a.m. at 8451 Brace.
Eddie Hamoud, 25, of Dearborn, whose family owns a Metro PCS cell phone store on the corner of Brace and Joy Road across from where the body was found, said the area has been plagued with crime recently.
Last week, someone tried to break into his family's store, which they have owned since 2006. The hair-braiding shop and the child care center in the same shopping strip also were burglarized recently, he said.
"This neighborhood has never been this bad," Hamoud said. "This year, it's getting bad."
Copyright 2012 - Detroit Free Press
