Fire Kills 5 at Detroit Apartments for Elderly

A smoky fire swept through an apartment building for the elderly, killing five people and injuring about 50, some of whom jumped from windows because the building lacked fire escapes.

Fire Chief Harold Watkins said the four-story, 76-year-old building also lacked sprinklers. Many of the injured suffered from smoke inhalation, and others suffered broken bones from their leaps, he said.

“We tried to stop them from jumping,” Watkins said of those who leaped from the upper floors. “We said the ladders would be there. But the smoke was just too much for them. They just couldn’t stand it. They jumped.”

The fire broke out Thursday night at the Majestic Manor senior citizens complex in mid-town Detroit. It was doused by early this morning.

Fire officials said the fire began in a first-floor apartment because of a cooking mishap.

A resident who declined to be identified said a neighbor knocked on her door Thursday night to tell her the hallway was filled with smoke.

“So I called the building manager and she told me a man on the first floor had let his skillet burn over and that’s what all the smoke was,” she said. “So I went back to bed.

“Later, and I don’t know what time it was, I woke up and my apartment was filled with smoke. I sleep with the window open anyway, luckily. Otherwise, I might have been dead.”