Suspicious fires cause major damage on Detroit's west side

DETROIT – Residents of a Westside Detroit neighborhood want to know why someone set a string of fires Friday, causing some bad damage. 

The fires all started within a half hour period in the area of I-96 and Joy Road. Fire investigators say all three are suspicious. 

"Well I got a phone call around 1, almost 2, this morning that my father’s house was on fire," said Brittney J. 

Brittney J. was at work Friday morning when she got the call about the fire. Her daughter was in the house, and that’s when she rushed to the home only to see parts of it burned and a gaping hole in the roof.

"So when I got here all I could think about was where my daughter is at," said Brittney J. 

Her daughter and niece were inside a nearby police car while the firefighters battled the blaze. It was a busy morning for the Detroit Fire Department -- two other homes nearby caught fire as well.

"We got the first call right after midnight," said Deputy Commissioner David Fornell with Detroit Fire Department. "The other two came in within a four-block area within the hour.”

Fornell said all three house fires were on the west side.

Questions still remain -- are they related? Could this be arson?

"That’s something that we’re looking into. Right now we can’t say they are," Fornell said, "but it’s awful coincidental that they’re happening just blocks apart."

Meanwhile Brittney and her family are trying to figure out what’s next. 

“We push through," Brittney said. "We don’t let nothing like this stop us, but we’re still hurt about it."