KENTWOOD, Mich. (AP) — An 85-year-old woman died Sunday after a fire rushed through a family home in suburban Grand Rapids, authorities say.
The Kentwood Fire Department got a call about 2:50 p.m. Sunday and found the two-story house's attached garage engulfed in flames. Other family members were able to escape the blaze.
"It is no pain like this on Mother's Day than you lose your mother before you get to her," said Larry Colbert, son of Mayetta Colbert.
Neighbor Jeff Dodge said he was mowing his lawn a few houses away when he saw the flames and ran over. He and another neighbor raced to find a ladder to attempt a rescue after a family member told them the woman was upstairs, Dodge said.
Dodge said a police dispatcher speaking to him on his cellphone ordered him not to attempt a rescue.
"I was yelling at the front of the house, 'Grandma, lay on the floor! Grandma, lay on the floor!'" Dodge told Mlive.com (http://bit.ly/J0XOCm ). "But you know, I'm sure I was just yelling at a window."
After firefighters arrived and pulled the woman from the second floor, paramedics spent about 20 minutes giving her cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the home's front but couldn't revive her.
The medical examiner's has been asked to investigate, and authorities said they were looking into the cause of the fire.
