Fire Destroys Mattress & Furniture Store in Inkster

INKSTER, Mich. (WJBK) - INKSTER, Mich. (WJBK) -- "There was a great big billow of smoke going down Michigan Avenue," said Mary Coulter, who called 911. "While we were waiting for the fire department to hook up its hoses and so forth, the flames started."

Coulter took pictures of the Motor City Mattress and Furniture fire on Michigan Avenue in Inkster. The flames shot through the roof. Heavy smoke was visible from two miles away.

40 firefighters from five different departments attacked the flames from the air and the ground, but a smoldering shell of a business is all that is left.

"Since it was furniture, I'm sure it had probably couches and bedding and so forth, so it just started to go up in flames," Coulter explained.

Motor City Mattress was going out of business. The store and everything inside was up for sale. Investigators were on the scene before the fire was even out. One firefighter said don't be surprised if this fire is deemed suspicious.

Fire officials told us it took them less than one minute to respond to this scene. The fire trucks only had to go less than three blocks down the road. The fire captain said in the short amount of time it took them to get there, the fire should not have spread as much as it did.

"The preliminary report ... from the owner is that he was in the building at the time. Came back to his office, saw that his office was on fire. His cell phone was in there, so he couldn't call from there and he went down the street to the gas station to call," said Inkster Fire Chief Mark Hubanks.

"I talked to him while we were watching the fire go up and you could just tell he was just devastated," said Coulter.

"What was he doing," FOX 2's Maurielle Lue asked her.

"Watching. He made a couple of calls to people so that they would know what was going on," she responded.

"We start looking at things. Obviously, we start talking to people immediately on the scene. My fire inspector, he was talking, questioning the owner about what he had saw," Hubanks said.

The chief said investigating a fire this early is completely standard. So far, the fire has not been ruled suspicious and investigators will be back on the scene Friday morning.

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Click on the player below to see a video of the fire.