An apartment building was firebombed before dawn Monday, killing three people and injuring at least five. Three men were taken into custody.
The blaze began about 5:30 a.m., apparently on the second floor, and was under control within an hour.The victims were two women and a third person who was burned so badly that officials were unsure if it was a man or woman, fire Capt. Ronald Meaux said.
Two women called police to report shots fired in an alley behind the building, police Officer Charles Redden said.
"Shortly thereafter, a firebomb came through the window, setting the building on fire," Redden said.
At 8:30 a.m., police brought three men in handcuffs out of the building and took them to police headquarters.
Henry Ford Hospital said three people were being treated there, two of them in critical condition. Two boys, ages 2 and 3, were taken to Children's Hospital. There was no immediate word on their condition, but Meaux said one boy was severely burned.
The brick building was evacuated. An hour after the blaze began, some residents were huddled around nearby buildings, wrapped in blankets.
Resident Fatimah Hussein said somebody set a fire on the fourth floor last month. She said the culprit poured alcohol in front of a radiator and set it on fire.
After that, management started putting fire extinguishers in every apartment, she said.
"The smoke alarms are faulty," Hussein said. "They go off all the time. When I first moved here, it would go from the shower."
Some residents said the false alarms were so frequent that many residents ignore them.
"A nice lady knocked on my door," one woman who lives in the building told radio station WWJ-AM. "If that nice lady didn't knock on my door . . . me and my baby would be dead."