62-year-old woman dies in tragic Three Oaks fire

THREE OAKS, Mich. - Tragedy struck this morning when a blaze broke out at the Lakewood Estates mobile home park off Warren Woods Road.

Firefighters got to the scene at around 4:30am and the blaze was quickly put out by Chikaming Township Fire with help from New Buffalo Township.

Fire crews say they found a 59-year-old man outside who escaped the flames, who is currently being treated for smoke inhalation.

Unfortunately, 62-year-old Dawn Popp did not make it out alive, leaving neighbors stunned by the loss.

‘The fire itself was tragic enough, but then to hear somebody actually died in there that’s a cancer survivor and somebody who's probably helpless to do anything about it that really hits home, that’s so hard to hear,” said Mark Andel, a resident of Lakewood Estates.

“I was informed that unfortunately somebody had not made it, my heart and prayers go out to that family, the only thing I can say is that we are lucky we had a very big dew this morning and no wind, because there could have been more tragedy,” said Teresa Blair, a resident of Lakewood Estates.

One neighbor is urging people to get a 14-dollar device that could potentially save your life in an electrical fire.

“You can just plug it in, it's even got a tester to make sure your GCFI is working properly, so it will trip, and you'll just put it back in and it’s a real simple device. If it doesn’t ring out correct, then you probably need to call an electrician and check out your wiring,” said Frank Cerveny, a resident of Lakewood Estates.

GFCI stands for ‘ground fault circuit interrupter” which is supposed to protect you against things like shocks, but a GFCI tester can also be useful in helping detect faulty wiring that can lead to electrical fires.

“It will tell you if there is an open ground, open neutral or ground reversed and you can also test your GFI to see if they are working properly and that’s a device that obviously protects people, not your property, like a breaker,” said Cerveny.

As of now there is still an ongoing investigation by Michigan State Police to find out exactly how this deadly blaze was sparked.