Teen from college-bound senior class dies after fire
DETROIT — A month ago his smiling face was caught by a Free Press photographer as he and his classmates at Detroit Cristo Rey High School celebrated a remarkable achievement — a 100% acceptance rate to college.
Monday, the joy felt by the 58-student senior class at the small Catholic high school was replaced with grief as fellow students mourned the loss of 17-year-old Cortez Burrell Jr., who died early Monday morning, three days after a house fire that also killed his 12-year-old brother.
Cortez died at 12:41 a.m., the Wayne County Medical Examiner confirmed.
When firefighters arrived at the house fire at about 5 a.m. Friday on the 8200 block of Lyford, the younger brother, Quartez Burrell, was already dead. The autopsy found his death to be accidental, resulting from smoke inhalation and burns. Cortez Burrell's autopsy was scheduled for Monday, according to the medical examiner's office.
"Cortez was a real part of our family here," Michael Khoury, the school's president said. "And his loss has been felt by everybody at the school."
Cortez Burrell's class was featured last month in an article by Free Press columnist Rochelle Riley marking the achievement of 100% college acceptance for the senior class.
School guidance counselor Hillary Sesi said Cortez Burrell was "a great student" who always looked out for his two 15-year-old twin sisters, who are sophomores at the school.
"He just always wanted to make people laugh and smile," she said, adding that he had plans to join the Navy a week after graduation.
Khoury said the school is setting up a fund to help the Burrells' family with medical and funeral expenses, with information to be available on its Facebook page.
"He was a good kid, and I can tell by the reaction by his fellow classmates just how much he'll be missed," Khoury said.
The small Catholic school in southwest Detroit aims to serve low-income families across the city, providing kids the same education they would receive at an expensive private school and getting them into college.
Cortez Burrell worked at Ser Metro, an organization that helps people develop skills and get jobs. He was an intern who assisted an instructor in the YouthBuild Construction Institute, helping young people with low incomes get GEDs and learn job skills by building homes for the homeless and other people with low incomes, said Glenda Magarrell, project director.
"We're devastated," she said. "We're really shocked at just how quickly he was taken. ... He was really a youth of great promise."
Habitat for Humanity, employer of the boys' father, Cortez Burrell Sr., has set up a GoFundMe page to support the family with expenses. The fund is to support the Burrell family as well as a separate Habitat employee whose home burned last week, killing two dogs and a cat.