Featured photo by L M Land-Children’s toys highlight the tragedy of the three Flint community children dying in a house fire.
Written by Tanya Terry
Things may never be the same for relatives, friends and neighbors of a family who lived on the 1600 block of S. Euclid Ave, on the north side of Flint. At around 4:40 a.m., Monday, May 6, crews with the Flint Fire Department were dispatched to the family’s home. Unfortunately, when they arrived, they found the first floor of the home engulfed in flames completely, along with heavy smoke on the second floor, according to Flint Fire Chief Ray Barton.
Damian Ford, a neighbor, said he and his wife heard someone hollering for help very early in the morning. Ford expressed that by the time he ran to in front of the neighbors’ home, the flames got very violent.
“The flames just went up, and the fire department came and told us to get out the way,” he added.
Ford said they moved, and the fire department “tried their best to get in.”
“I guess once they got in it was too late,” Ford stated.
A mother, father and young three children age 10 or under died because of the house fire.
Ford also stated around the time he was calling 911, a woman told the surviving son to “jump.” He said this son tried to tell his siblings to do the same, but from Ford’s understanding the siblings were too scared.
The surviving child, Deon Brown, was 9 years old according to authorities, and jumped out a second-story window. The family told the Courier he had been placed on a ventilator, although one source said he was off of the ventilator at some point and had said a few words. At press time, he was at Hurley Medical Center.
Ford said his own kids and the kids who died as a result of the fire used to play basketball and ride their bikes together.
He also stated the tragedy made him want to get closer to his own family.
“You never know what could happen.”
Although the cause of the fire is yet to be determined, authorities said did not have a working smoke detector.
Deon Bradley, who was 30, was the mother of Brown and shared his first name.
“She was a loving person, very funny, goofy, a very outgoing person; she knows a lot of people; she respects a lot of people and she was a mother of five” said Resheema Whitner, a relative, speaking about Bradley.
Bradley had an infant child die previously in 2015, with the cause being unknown. She worked at Walmart in Grand Blanc.
“She was my little cousin, and I was her big cousin” explained Whitner.
Whitner also explained the 54-year-old father of Whitner’s children, Darrin Brown, was “the life of the party,” as were all the couple’s children.
“The kids had the same type of energy that the mother and father had. So, it’s like anytime you’d come over, there’s going to be a party. You’re going to have fun. You’re going to laugh. Darrin loved to laugh. He loved to tell jokes.”
Whitner and other relatives who were heartbroken said it was sad to “see the sunshine just fade away.”
Whitner, who was one of the first family members or friends to come to the scene of the fire, had seen her family members the Sunday night before they died. She vividly remembers the kids telling each her they loved her, and her telling them she loved them-not knowing at all it would be the last time they would be together in this way.
Sherry Johnston, who was a neighbor of the family whose house went up in flames, said she had been “mentoring” Brown Sr.
She also recalls seeing the children playing in bounce houses the couple had set up near the home.
“They were good people,” Johnston recalled. “Everybody has their problems, and I was working with Darrin.”
Johnston said Brown had expressed he wanted to be a better father to his children, and that he felt bad he hadn’t been the best father possible to children he had fathered from a previous relationship.
“They were wonderful people and good neighbors,” Johnston said, in tears.
Johnston said she had seen Brown the day before he died tragically, and she saw the three oldest boys playing basketball. She also remembers Brown happily walking his youngest girl in a wagon to the gas station and back while the other kids were in school.
Pam Folts, who lives in the home with Johnston, got up at around 5 a.m. the morning of the fire and said there were flashing lights going all over the neighborhood. Johnston got up in a hurry and looked outside. When she saw the fire trucks and obtained a few details she realized, in horror, it was likely the house Brown lived in.
“The guy who lived in the house before that accidentally killed himself on New Year’s Eve, and he was related to that person.”
Johnston said Brown was “paranoid because the neighborhood can get pretty rough at times.”
“So, he would barricade that front door.”
Johnson and others said they will continue to pray for Deon Brown and they love him dearly.
This tragedy follows a May 28 deadly fire by less than 10 days. On that date, two young boys died in an upstairs bedroom of a home on the 600 block of West Pulaski Avenue.
