Woman survives 2nd suspected firebombing attempt on home

DETROIT (WJBK) - At 30th street near Horatio, it was eerily quiet Wednesday afternoon as just hours earlier a large fire broke out.

The home next door was engulfed with flames spreading to 45-year-old Teresa Winsley's residence.

"This morning I heard something go boom," said Winsley, 45. "And I jumped up and I saw flames."

Her smoke detector going off just after 6:30 a.m. Wednesday.  Winsley heard someone screaming and was unsure where the flames were coming from.

"The yelling and screaming was someone telling us the house was on fire," she said. "They were yelling at us to get out."

Winsley grabbed her dogs and got out unable to find her cat. She saw her neighbor's house fully engulfed.

"I saw flames coming out of this window and all the way to the top of the house," she said.

Winsley says usually her neighbor sleeps there, right by the window and sleeps upstairs.

"I'm glad he made it out of there," she said. "I heard the screaming and yelling."

Fire crews tell FOX 2 it's possible this home had been firebombed, the stench of gas was in the air. Winsley says someone threw something into her side window as well.

"It didn't make it all the way in. Thank goodness for that one," she said.

The top of the two-home flat was ruined by water damage but thankfully unoccupied. Winsley says this isn't the first time she's dealt with this.

FOX 2: "What happened five months ago? 

"Someone burned up the back of my house," she said.

Winsley's dog and puppies saved from her burned home on Brown Place. Winsley is unsure why anyone would do something like this to her or her neighbors.

"There's a special place in hell for them, that is the only thing I can say," she said. "They are nothing but the devil."

On Wednesday afternoon Winsley's cat came out of hiding.

Winsley thanked Detroit police and fire crews along with her neighbors who got her and her animals out safely.

"It was hard recovering from the first fire," Winsley said. "Now we have to go through this all over again. But we still have our lives and we still have all our possessions this time."