It's another newsy day in Detroit.
Just hours after the final federal court ruling in the city's historic bankruptcy case, a massive firestorm engulfed at least seven southwest Detroit homes after an explosion on Oakdale, Shawn Ley reports at WDIV.
The scene near Vernor Highway is captured in the station's dramatic helicopter images shown here. In one of his earliest tweets, Ley posted at 5:18 p.m.: "Southwest Detroit is burning."
Update, 7 p.m.: "I can smell the smoke in Midtown," Deadline reader Tash Moore posts with our Facebook link to this article.
Ley tweeted from the scene:
My sources tell me a scrapper set off a gas explosion that's burned 7 homes down to their foundations. pic.twitter.com/NBqyIVRgGM
— Shawn Ley (@ShawnLeyLive) November 7, 2014
The scene near Vernor Highway from WDIV's helicopter.
In a 6:06 p.m. update, the newsman clarifies that the suspect reportedly was squatting in a vacant home.
Information on the developing story also is at the station's website:
Detroit firefighters battled the flames in an effort to keep them from spreading down the street. They were able to contain it to about seven homes. Firefighters believe the initial explosion was caused by a natural gas leak. They said there was scrapping going on inside the house.
Witnesses said a man who was on fire was seen running from the house after the explosion. Police have arrested that man not far from the fire.
No other injuries were reported. People living in the occupied homes were able to get out before the fire consumed the houses. . . .
Harold Long said it shook everything on the block.
"It was a big boom and it shook the whole block. It almost felt like an earthquake," he said. "It blew out windows on the house."
-- Alan Stamm
