A 78-year-old retired clergyman in Macomb County is among tenants grateful to be alive after a weekend fire trapped them at Shelby Manor Senior Apartments.
Father Leonard Sypinski, former priest at St. Therese of Lisieux Parish, tells local Patch editor Marina Cracchiolo about his tense escape from a smoky third-floor balcony early Saturday:
"The fire department brought the ladder up and the bucket and they carried me over the porch. And the they brought me down to the ground and here I am, thank goodness. They saved me."
Sypinksi initially headed for stairsway, but turned back because of collapsed walls and roof materials. "I just put myself in God's hands," he tells Patch.
Firefighters rescued about two dozen others, many of them handicapped or with limited mobility. More than a dozen also were lowered from balconies using a ladder and bucket. Only one minor injury was reported, according to Patch.
"A building like this is an intense manpower challenge," Shelby Township Fire Chief Lance Watters is quoted as saying. His force got help from police officers and every nearby fire department.
