Mother and daughter found dead in burning Hazel Park home with no working smoke detectors, officials say

HAZEL PARK (WWJ) -- Cigarette smoking and a lack of working smoke detectors are believed to have led to the deaths of two women in a house fire, Friday morning in Hazel Park.

Hazel Park Fire Chief Richard Story said the fire had already been burning for about 30 minutes when a Good Samaritan saw it, on E. Muir Ave. near 8 Mile and Dequindre roads, and called for help.

"From what my police department said, there was a person traveling in a car on 8 Mile, they saw smoke, they went around the corner, came back, found the building on fire, called 911," Story said.

Authorities told WWJ's Charlie Langton two victims, found dead by firefighters inside the home, are a woman and her elderly mother. It's believed the women died from smoke inhalation.

The family cat also died in the fire, Langton reported.

Among family members gathered at the scene was Russ Carnes, who said the women killed were his brother's wife and mother-in-law.

Carnes said his brother and his wife had three children, but one of them died from COVID a couple of years ago.

"I don't know how he's gonna deal with this, just losing his son like that. And they had been together forever, and that was his rock there," Carnes said. "I just don't know how he's going to do this."

Firefighters remained on the scene late into the morning, working to put out some hot spots.

Story said the home is a total loss.

As for what started the fire, Story said investigators have a pretty good idea:

"Their family is smokers; there was smoking material near the incident," Story said. "It was stated by family, I believe, that there was an ashtray in that general vicinity. There's a lot of combustibles in that room. So, just a bad accident it sound like."

Officials believe there were no working smoke detectors in the house to warn the victims of the fire.

Autopsies have been scheduled for later today to confirm a cause of death.

The women's names are not being released at this time.

Editor's note: Early information from authorities was that it was a man and a woman who died. That information has since been corrected to reflect that it was two women.