Police say a cooking accident led to a funeral home fire in Belleville

BELLEVILLE, Mich. (WXYZ) - A funeral home in Belleville burns for hours and police say it started by a cooking accident at a home attached to the funeral business.

No one had been inside the home at the time of the fire and no bodies had been in the funeral home.  The fire started around 6:30pm Sunday at the David C. Brown Funeral Home.

“Awful.  Awful.  I pulled up and just started crying,” said Judy McDaniel, a long time resident of Belleville.

Many people showed up at the fire worried that the long standing Belleville business would burn to the ground.

“Ugh.  It’s heartbreaking.  Heartbreaking,” said McDaniel.

The funeral business has a residential home attached to the building that is rented out by a family member.  Belleville Police tell 7 Action News that someone left a grill unattended and the propane tank exploded.

“There were flames in the back part of the home and the funeral home was fully engulfed when I got here,” said Corporal Todd Schrecengost with the Belleville Police Department.

No one had been injured.  Neighbors said that the food on the grill had been cooking for a party across the street where the funeral home owners live and had been celebrating a baptism. 

 “They take care of our family.  Every one of them,” said Augie McDaniel, another long time Belleville resident.  He said the business is one of two main funeral homes in the area.   According to their website the David C. Brown Funeral Home has been operating in Belleville since 1974.  The building used to be a Moose Lodge until they turned it into a funeral home in 1982.

 “Unbelievable.  They do somewhere around 300 funerals a year,” said Augie.