DETROIT, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Detroit fire department officials say a 70-year-old man has died after saving his wife from what firefighters called a firebombing of several houses.
Detroit Fire Capt. Steve Varnas said Russell Marcilis Sr. "was trying to make it, got almost to the front door and expired," after his wife Marie, 63, escaped the Wednesday night fire with injuries not considered life threatening, the Detroit Free Press reported.
Family members said they believe it was a case of apparently mistaken revenge.
Firebombs hit homes on each side of the Marcilis residence but only the Marcilis home went up in flames, firefighters said.
A neighbor allegedly had a feud at a local bar during the weekend, the couple's son Russel Marcilis Jr. said, "and that could have led to it."
"What we heard is it was just the wrong house," he said.
Neighbor Cecilia Thomas, 46, said she and another resident heard the firebombing and went outside to find Marie Marcilis fleeing the burning house.
They tried to rescue her husband but couldn't get into the home, Thomas said.
"I kept trying to open the screen door but it burned my hands,""Thomas said. "The whole house was just blazing."
Detroit police declined to comment on the incident, the Free Press said.
