'Consumed in flames': Clinton Township house fire kills man
CLINTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (FOX 2) - A neighbor said she ran outside to help when she saw a house on fire near her home in Clinton Township early Tuesday, but the house was already consumed by flames.
"I heard a big boom, I thought it could have been a car accident since we're so close to Gratiot," neighbor Chanel Monette said. "When I looked out my window, I saw a bunch of flames and I knew it was my neighbor."
The house on Vermander Avenue near Gratiot and 15 Mile caught fire just after midnight, killing John Brune.
John Brune
"I rushed out the house and just ran down there, but the house was already consumed in flames," Monette said.
She said the flames were so intense that she couldn't see through them.
"I just couldn't believe it," longtime friend Donald Jones said after seeing posts about the fire. "I said, ‘That’s John's house.'"
When first responders arrived, they extinguished the flames and discovered that the man had died. Neighbors described the man as kind, considerate, and very giving.
Though the cause of the fire is still under investigation, neighbors say they don't think the home had electricity because the man had fallen on hard times. Neighbors said they saw him carrying tanks of propane into the house hours before the fire.
"He was a good man. He would give his last, and he didn't have much at all," friend John Garetz said. "He would never turn anybody down. He was always giving, loving, a funny guy. I’ll miss him."