Families escape Detroit house blaze but lose everything

DETROIT - Two families devastated by an early morning fire in Detroit. A brave father helped them escape with their lives. But everything else was lost.

"What about us, that is my stuff - my TV, my washer, my everything," said a woman crying. "That's my life in there."

That was the case for one of the seven people who used to call an east side Detroit house on Montclair home.

All seven and three dogs were able to escape with their lives but it was clear there was little else left.

"I was just looking for paperwork for the Red Cross," said Darrieus Spikes. "Information, a DTE bill, something I could give them."

The Red Cross says they will provide shelter, clothes and food at least for the next two days for the two affected families including three children who had left for school right before the fire broke out.

The roof of the house is caved in on the second story bedroom where Spikes was asleep at the time. He says somehow the smoke woke him up.

Spikes then worked as fast as he could to get everyone else out of the house.

"I really don't know where it came from," he said. "By the time I came down to tell everyone, the whole house was going up." 

The people living there weren't the only ones affected. In battling the blaze three Detroit firefighters were hurt. They were taken to the hospital but are expected to survive.

"She saw smoke was coming down through the gutters," Spikes said "It had to be inside the walls."

The families don't know where they will go from here. Spikes says he had rented the house for the past two years and was planning on buying it shortly.

If you would like to help the families has a GoFundMe page CLICK HERE.