DETROIT, Mich. (WXYZ) — Fire crews battled a massive house fire this morning at a home in Detroit's Palmer Woods neighborhood.
The house is on Balmoral Dr. in the neighborhood. That's in the area of 7 Mile and Woodward, just north of the Detroit Golf Club.
The homeowner tells us that no one was in the home at the time of the fire when it started, with the family living in the guest house behind the affected home currently.
Related Video: Watch the scene from Chopper 7 below
The fire is still active as of 8:30 a.m., and started before 6 a.m., fire officials tell us. We're told this is a slate roof, with our crew observing slate tiles falling off the home as the fire blazed.
A next-door neighbor told us he woke up to the fire and called 911 immediately, saying that the smoke from the fire was so thick, he couldn't see across the street.
"Devastating to watch the flames progress, from the first floor to the second and up onto the roof," he told us. "It is a tragedy."
"It's a lot, it's a lot to take in," said Jerlando Jackson, the homeowner. "Like most people, we've been watching and hoping it would stop much sooner than it has."
The home was built over a century ago, originally owned by the Briggs family, specifically Mirton Briggs,the former Vice President of Briggs Manufacturing Co.
"Obviously homes were built a lot differently 100 years ago," said a Deputy Chief on the scene. "The fire load is little different. There’s heavy tinder construction."
Fire officials tell us it's too early to determine the cause of this fire.
