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Cigarette causes Huntington Hotel fire; 2 dead, 1 missing

Detroit - A drunk playing with fire is being blamed for a fire that killed two men emerged from a wheelchair woman missing and presumed dead and destroyed a five-story building on New Year's Eve, fire investigators said friday.

The origin of the fire at the Huntington Hotel dates back to the room of a resident who admitted drinking during the day Thursday with a piece of paper to light his cigarette instead of a match or lighter, Detroit Fire Capt. Steve Varnas said. "He was drunk all day and he did something he never did: He lit a piece of paper on fire to light his cigarette and thought about it. No," Varnas said.

The lit paper caught the man's sheets on fire and then his entire bed, Vargas said.

Residents who were forced to find new housing when the blaze erupted just after 9 p.m. were angry upon hearing the cause of the fire that killed two residents of the hotel at 109 W. Alexandrine, Varnas said

One woman, 67-year-old Ann Louise Roeder, remains missing. She was last seen on the third floor in a smoke-filled hallway.

Varnas said the building's roof and fourth floor collapsed onto the third floor where the woman was last seen. That layer of rubble fell and is now between the first and second floors, he said.

"We have a very dangerous building where we can't go in there and fear it will cause a chain reaction. It's very dangerous now. We will order heavy equipment and scoop rubble out of there today," Varnas said.

About 49 people were staying in the building, which had operable hallway smoke alarms. Some rooms had battery-operated smoke alarms, he said.

Varnas said several oxygen tanks exploded in the fire. Many resident of the complex were on disability and had oxygen tanks. Residents said they rented the rooms by the month at the five-story structure.

The building is near the Wayne State campus, on Alexandrine, just west of Woodward. Two firefighters suffered non-life-threatening injuries. By 10 p.m. Thursday, a Detroit transit bus had arrived and served as a warming center for residents, and the Salvation Army also sent food for them.

Cheri Rice Murray, 58, said she smelled smoke in her fourth-floor apartment Thursday night.

"We broke the glass out of my window there," she said, pointing up at the flaming building. "The Fire Department, they took us out of there on their ladder. If they hadn't, we'd still be in there."

Murray said she is one of 24 residents renting rooms on her floor. She pays $280 a month for her room with a bathroom.

One observer, Terence Simmons, 56, who lived a block away, said he had been preparing for a New Year's party when he heard the explosion. "We were decorating for a party, and now I want to go home and put it all away," he said Thursday night.

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