DETROIT - Two girls were killed in a house fire early Wednesday after their father and aunt say they refused to jump to safety from a second-story window.


Lataya Cook, 10, and her sister, Alaya, 8, died in the wood-framed house on Detroit's east side, The Detroit News reported.

Their father, Deonte Cook, made it out safely.

Marguerite Cook Jr. said her brother jumped out of the window to show his daughters they would be OK to follow and instructed them to jump into his arms.

"They wouldn't jump," Marguerite Cook Jr. told the newspaper. "The girls said they were scared. It's devastating."

An accelerant-sniffing dog was brought in later in the morning at the site of the fire, which officials told the Detroit Free Press seemed suspicious.

They told WDIV-TV, WJBK-TV and WXYZ-TV that the girls' father claimed the house had been fire-bombed.


Investigators sifted through what was left of the home - parts of a few walls and the front stairs.

The girls' grandmother, Marguerite Cook, said Alaya was excited about an upcoming play at her school and wanted to show off the costume she was going to wear for the performance.

"Alaya was so happy about it," she said. "She was talking to me all the time about the outfit. She said she couldn't wait for me to see her in it. Now that's not going to happen."


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