A neighborhood remains stunned after the sudden death of three people in a house fire.
The victims, three-year-old twin brothers JaCion and JaSean Ford and their grandmother 46-year-old Michelle Ford were found dead on the second story of the home on Lahser near 7 Mile in Detroit.
Fire investigators say it's likely the three died from smoke.
"Just a couple of breaths and you can get disoriented and you can pass out and then after that who knows,” said Southfield Fire Inspector Andy Skierski.
He says there is one thing we can all do to increase our chances of surviving a house fire, even in the middle of the night. All you have to do it close your bedroom door.
The Southfield Fire Department invited 7 Action News into their fire safety trailer to imitate what happens during a fire.
Skierski says saving your life could be as simple as shutting your bedroom door before you go to bed, “you can see a little bit of smoke coming out from that door, very minor. Very little bit. Your smoke alarm outside in the hallway would be going off already like crazy."
That bedroom door he says acts as a barrier, protecting your lungs as you sleep, giving you time to wake up and escape without breathing in too much smoke.
"Now I want you to see how dangerous it is if you were out in that hallway. See all that smoke coming in."
Leaving your bedroom door even cracked open is dangerous, Skierski says it allows that quick moving smoke to fill your room.
"That's what it's like in that house fire, you can't see three feet in front of your face."
Once you're in thick smoke like this, you only have minutes to get out, to find fresh, clean oxygen.
"Smoke is very dangerous, lots of chemicals, carcinogens. You breathe a few breaths of the chemicals and you start to get disoriented, you get lost, you can't find your way out and people parish from smoke."
Nine other people made it out of the Lahser street house fire alive.
Investigators believe this was an accidental kitchen fire on the first floor, but say smoke rises and it filled the second story.
Fire investigators say it is also important to have working smoke detectors in every single bedroom.
Place a fire extinguisher on each floor.
They remind you to create a family escape plan, with a meeting place outside and practice it twice a year.
And as you escape a home close every door behind you to help contain the fire.
They say doing all of this will increase your chances of getting out of house fire alive, even in the middle of the night.
