DETROIT (WXYZ) — A 79-year-old woman has been found after she disappeared during an evacuation due to a deadly fire at a senior home on Detroit's east side overnight Monday.
The fire was contained to one room at the St. Joseph's Manor senior home, located at Cadieux Road near Warren Street. A 78-year-old man died after the fire.
“It could have been a lot worse,” said Sgt. Ron Gibson with the Detroit Police Department, noting that management did a good job of evacuating the live-in residents quickly.
According to Detroit Fire Department Chief Dave Fornell, an 82-year-old woman and 66-year-old woman were taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation. Overall, 87 residents and three staff members were evacuated.
Eunice Pugh, who suffers from severe dementia, was lost during the evacuation from the fire. She was found shortly before 9 a.m.
A firefighter added that the structure helped keep the fire confined to a single room, because it's made mostly of brick and cement.
It is currently not known what the cause of the fire was. However, it will be up to the arson investigation team to determine that cause. The battalion chief that responded to the fire said that doesn't mean an arson is suspected, but that their team would help figure out what led to the fire.
#BreakingNews update — administrator tells @wxyzdetroit Eunice Pugh has been found, she’d gone missing during the deadly fire on the east side earlier this AM. pic.twitter.com/sVR8wzXF8H
— Matthew Smith (@MattSmithWXYZ) September 23, 2019
Old tweets from our reporter Matthew Smith below
#BreakingNews Eunice Pugh went missing during this morning’s fire. She has severe dementia — please share! Went missing near Cadieux and Warren on Detroit’s east side. @wxyzdetroit @detroitpolice @DetroitFire pic.twitter.com/PRj1SVEGwz
— Matthew Smith (@MattSmithWXYZ) September 23, 2019
#BreakingNews: 1 dead inside of the St. Joesph’s Manor senior home, battalion chief 9 from Detroit Fire tells me one person was found dead inside, fire contained to one room — no word on cause yet. @wxyzdetroit pic.twitter.com/jMxloHmrwb
— Matthew Smith (@MattSmithWXYZ) September 23, 2019
NEW INFO: 50+ were evacuated... at least two had to be transported for smoke inhalation. The person that died was a man, my understanding was that the man was found in his chair in the burned out room. No word on cause, that said brick building helped keep fire from spreading.
— Matthew Smith (@MattSmithWXYZ) September 23, 2019
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