Hannah Mackay, Myesha Johnson, Max Reinhart
The Detroit News
(TNS)
West Bloomfield Township — An Oakland County community is in mourning after a 12-year-old boy and his two teenage siblings were killed in a fire Sunday evening at a home that officials say had no working smoke alarms.
West Bloomfield Fire Marshal Byron Turnquist said Monday the cause of the blaze at the home on the 5000 block of Pembury Lane is under investigation. One of the occupants is said to have called in to report the three — who included a 15-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl — were trapped in the house.
The fire was contained to the main level of the home, but there was “significant” heat and smoke damage throughout the home, the fire marshal said.
“We’re working very closely with our partners at the police department, and we just want to make sure that we don’t miss anything,” Turnquist said. “(We’re) still trying to again work through that and take a complete survey of the scene and try to determine … how they were trapped and why they were unable to get out.”
Rawad Fayad, 18, lives next door to the home. He said a “very loving family” lived there for about three years. He was friends with the children, who would sometimes come to his home to play basketball or jump on the trampoline.
“They were so full of life,” Fayad said. “It’s genuinely so insane we won’t get to see them grow up. It shows how your life can just change in an instant.”
Rawad’s younger brother, Jad, had tried to alert his neighbors to the fire by pounding on the front door, then the back door, where the fire seemed to be coming from, said Nazir Fayad, the teens’ father. Once firefighters arrived, Jad and another man who attempted to help retreated in hopes the first responders would rescue the young people inside.
“We’re always trying to help people,” Nazir said. “When it was over, I talked to the father. He cried in my hands.”
District: ‘Support the family’
City officials received a 911 call at around 8 p.m. about a structure on fire with residents trapped inside, according to the West Bloomfield Fire Department.
Firefighter-paramedics from all six township fire stations responded, forced their way through the front door and searched for the trapped occupants.
The two boys and one girl were found and transported to hospitals, where they died from their injuries, said Turnquist, who added that there were no other occupants.
The three were siblings, according to a letter sent from West Bloomfield Superintendent Dania Bazzi and High School principal Eric Pace informing families about the incident and available mental health resources. One was a junior at West Bloomfield High School, and the other two attended schools outside the district.
“Staff will be on alert and ready to assist students as needed,” the letter said. “We will work with the family and honor their wishes.”
The West Bloomfield School District’s mental health team and mental health support will be available to students and staff on a drop-in basis in the counseling office this week, according to the letter.
“During this difficult time, it is important that we come together as a community and support the family involved and one another,” the letter said. “The most important thing we can do is love our kids and one another.”
The fire marshal encouraged the public to test their smoke alarms every month and to replace them if they are more than 10 years old.
“Everybody should know at least two ways out of their home,” Turnquist said. “In the event of a fire, if the primary door is blocked, you need to have another avenue to escape your house, and it’s good to practice that.”
Fear and mourning
State Rep. Noah Arbit, D-West Bloomfield, echoed the plea to check smoke detectors in a post on Facebook.
“Utterly heartbroken by this devastating news. My heart is with the family of these children, who tragically passed away last night,” Arbit said.
Bloomfield Township Supervisor Jonathan Warshay said the community was mourning.
“It certainly is a tragedy for the family. I mean, they lost three children, 16, 15, and 12, so our hearts go out to the family and their friends,” Warshay said. “Certainly, their neighbors and the West Bloomfield community as a whole feel their loss.”
At the home Monday, yellow police tape encircled the front exterior. Plywood covered what was once a narrow window next to the front door, along with two windows in the back of the home. In the driveway was a car with a yellow sticker on the bumper, noting a student driver.
Two township police cars remained parked outside for hours.
Darla Johnson, who lives on nearby Heather Heath Lane, said she had a clear view of the residence from a window on the second floor of her home.
Johnson, 61, has lived there for more than 20 years and said she didn’t realize anyone was in the house when she saw smoke, flames and lights from emergency vehicles around 8:30 p.m. Sunday.
“I was concerned because I didn’t know what was going on,” Johnson said. “I wasn’t scared because I feel like the emergency people had it under control. The whole block was full (of emergency vehicles).”
Nazir Fayad said he’s using the tragedy as a teaching moment for his family.
“My daughter, she’s 7, she’s scared something will happen. I say, ‘Nothing will happen. We have fire extinguishers,’ and teach them to use it,” he said.
The incident came less than two weeks after a Redford Township fire left a 72-year-old woman dead.
In 2025, there had been 13 deaths from 12 fires in Michigan through Sunday before the three deaths were confirmed Monday in West Bloomfield’s fire, according to the Michigan Fire Inspectors Society.
Fatal fire statistics for 2024 show Michigan experienced 116 deaths statewide resulting from 106 fires, according to the state’s Bureau of Fire Services. The agency said the number is a 16% decrease from 123 deaths in 102 fires in 2023.
Michigan fire departments responded to more than 34,400 fires between October 2023 and September 2024, according to the bureau’s annual report for 2024. That compares with more than 38,600 in the same period the previous year.
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