Ann Zaniewski, and Daniel Bethencourt

Detroit Free Press

Detroit fire officials are investigating 17 suspected arson fires that started Monday night and continued into Tuesday morning.

The first broke out at about 8 p.m. Monday, Chief of Arson Patrick McNulty said Tuesday. Most were on the east side of the city in the same 1- to 2 square miles around French Road, he said. Flames scorched a mix of occupied and vacant homes.

No injuries were reported.

McNulty said there's typically an uptick in fires around the time of the city's annual fireworks celebration, which was Monday.

"It’s an busy night, but we anticipated it. We had, like, about 30 fires in a 24-hour period yesterday," from roughly 8 a.m. Monday to 8 a.m. Tuesday, he said. "Last year, we had 25. It’s always a busy day for us on fireworks night."

Two of the burned homes, both in the 5200 block of French Road, had been recently renovated by a Detroit pastor. He bought them so he could house homeless people and others in need.

“I feel kind of defeated on some level,” said the pastor, W.J. Rideout III of All God’s People Church on French Road. “It feels like I’m back to square one.”

Rideout got a call at around 4:30 p.m. Monday telling him that the homes were on fire. Firefighters battled the flames for about four hours; he said the two structures were completely destroyed.

He bought the homes, which are next to his church, two years ago. He invested his own money in a water heater, washer, dryer and other basic furniture. He said he was planning more renovations.

The three-bedroom homes were housing six people altogether. Now, he said, he doesn’t know where they’ll go.

“It feels very bad,” he said. “These families are out on the streets.”

He also said that because the homes weren’t insured, “We get nothing, I don’t gain anything — I lost.”

Contact Ann Zaniewski: 313-222-6594, azaniewski@freepress.com or on Twitter @AnnZaniewski.