A Farmington Hills homeowner dropped his dog and jumped from his bedroom window to escape a fire early today that destroyed his million-dollar home.
His dog woke the resident at 26426 Ballantrae in the Trillium Subdivision off Drake Road just south of 12 Mile just after 2 a.m. today, Farmington Hills Fire Chief Lt. Denny Hughes said.
"He said the dog woke him, which it never does, and his room was filled with smoke," Hughes said, adding that he then heard the smoke detectors going off. "He threw his mattress out the window, first lowered his dog down then jumped himself.
When we got on scene, there were already flames coming out of the roof. The flames were from one end to the other."
Neither the homeonwer nor the dog was injured. Hughes estimated the value of the home at between $1.2 and $2 million. At 9:30 a.m., the top half of the home was burned away and firefighters were still dousing the home with water.
Hughes said firefighters will try to determine how the fire began. He said the homeonwer did not know what could have started it.
Copyright 2012 - Detroit Free Press
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
