Inkster mattress store destroyed in blaze

Inkster — An early morning fire completely destroyed the Motor City Mattress and Furniture store located on the 27000 block of Michigan Avenue.

There are no reported injuries from the blaze, which was fought by fire companies from Inkster, Garden City, Dearborn and Westland.

The fire began after 8:30 a.m. Thursday, according to Henry Giles, owner of the Giles Auto Body shop, located directly across the street from the furniture store.

"The store is completely engulfed in flames," said Giles, when contacted at about 10 a.m. "Flames are coming out of the roof and the windows are all blown out. There's fire trucks everywhere and lots and lots of smoke."

Giles said he was talking to a customer outside his shop when the fire began.

"I …wondered where all these cops were going," Giles said. "Then I heard way too many sirens. I looked at the mattress store, and it already had smoke billowing out of it."

By 10:45 a.m., the blaze was largely extinguished, leaving the building a smoking ruin of fire blackened walls surrounding a collapsed roof.

This was the second devastating commercial building fire to hit the region in little more than a year.

On Dec. 29, 2010, two people were killed, and several were injured, in an explosion and fire at the William C. Franks Furniture Store in the neighboring city of Wayne.

It was later determined that the explosion at the store — located in the 2940 block of South Wayne Road — was caused by a gas leak.

tgreenwood@detnews.com

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