ROSEVILLE, Mich. (WXYZ) — Family and neighbors say 81-year-old John Balkevitch of Roseville escaped his burning home Saturday morning before returning to attempt to save his rescue dog, Lexie. Both died in the fire.
The Roseville Fire Department says on Saturday around 10:55 a.m., the department first received calls of a fire near Common Road and Utica Road.
Neighbors say they heard a loud explosion before seeing the flames come from Balkevitch's home.
“I just heard some screaming coming down from my street," neighbor Jeremy Skobler said.
Skobler and other neighbors jumped into action, trying to save the 81-year-old man, but the flames were too fierce.
“We ran down to the house just to see if we could get him out ourselves before the firefighters got there," Skobler said. "I couldn’t even get into the house, it was so smoke-filled."
According to Skobler, family and other neighbors, Balkevitch had initially escaped, but ran back into the home to save his 5-year-old rescue dog, Lexie.
"He went in for his dog. That dog was his world. He loved her so much," Balkevitch's daughter Stacie Krause said.
Krause says she's not surprised her selfless father ran back into the home to attempt to save Lexie, but it still hurts to lose him.
"We’re a wreck. It's one of those thing you prepare for, your parents passing one day," she said. "But you don’t prepare for them passing like this.”
All that remains at the home is debris, the Christmas tree Balkevitch still had up and — to the family’s surprise — some family photos and the memorial plaque of Balkevitch's wife still intact.
Krause's mom, Marylyn Balkevitch, died in 2020. She had brain cancer and died of a heart attack. While her memorial plaque remains unscathed from the fire, the family has still not been able to locate her ashes that were inside the home at the time of the fire.
"We're hoping (firefighters) find them when they go through the rubble," Krause said.
The Roseville Fire Department is continuing to actively investigate the cause of the fire. Family friends have set up a GoFundMe page to help Krause and her sister, Kimberly Comito-Balkevitch, deal with the loss of their father.
