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Woman Apologizes For Sparking Massive Fire With Effort To Kill Bedbugs

DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - A Detroit woman is apologizing for a massive fire that she and authorities say was started by her efforts to eradicate bedbugs from her apartment.

Tuesday's fire tore through Ramblewood Apartments, destroying the 48-unit complex on the city's west side.

Resident Sherry Young was injured along with four others, including three firefighters. Young told the Detroit Free Press she was spraying herself with rubbing alcohol when it was ignited by a stove and oven.

She said she had turned on the stove and oven the previous day to heat up her apartment, on advice from a neighbor, as part of the effort to kill the bedbugs.

"I didn't know that the fumes were so ignitable," she said. "Had I known that, I would not have doused myself before going into the apartment."

Young said she suspected the apartment had bedbugs in January and earlier efforts by an exterminator and an apartment complex employee failed. Speaking by phone from a hospital where she was being treated for burns, she said she was in a "state of torment" from the bedbugs.

"I'm so sorry," she said, struggling to speak as she began sobbing. "I didn't mean it. My neighbors ... everybody's displaced because of me."

Young said she had slept in her car Monday night and doused herself with rubbing alcohol before walking into the apartment. When she went inside, the newspaper said, she started pouring rubbing alcohol on the floor and saw it ignite near the oven.

Detroit Fire Chief Charles Simms says the fire was accidental and there was "no malicious intent."

"She just really had some really bad judgment," said Simms.

Of the injured firefighters, one had neck burns from a collapsing piece of the ceiling, and two others were treated for possible smoke inhalation. Displaced residents now are finding other places to live and the fire department said the fire was accidental.

TM and © Copyright 2015 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2015 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 

 

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