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Over the past month, the troubled Detroit Fire Department has found itself trying to convince an angry public that it has not abandoned them. The latest debacle was a windblown inferno that torched at least 70 homes across the city. It was so bad that an 11-year-old dressed in a T-shirt and sneakers was pulling hose for the overwhelmed Fire Department. Firefighters from Warren, Dearborn and Grosse Pointe were called in. Mayor Bing passed it off as a natural disaster.

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After the September 7 windstorm brought down 750 power lines, fires engulfed 85 structures in the city of Detroit, including 29 occupied homes. In the days leading up to the fires, energy company DTE ignored repeated warnings from residents about dangerously malfunctioning electrical equipment.

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Residents pointed to the failure of the fire department to respond quickly to the fires. “It took one and a half hours for the fire department to come,” said Margaret. “I called at least ten times. I called 911, and they started having an attitude. They were real nasty to me on the phone.”

The Bing administration has expanded cuts to the Fire Department that have been ongoing for about a decade. Between 8 and 12 of the city’s 66 fire companies are now “browned out” each day, temporarily decommissioned and unavailable to fight fires, due to budget cuts.

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Andrew, another resident, added, “When the fire department first came there was only one truck. They tried to hook up the fire hydrant that was in front of the house, but there was no pressure.”

The residents explained that the fire fighters desperately tried to get water pressure from several hydrants after the first one failed. They also tried, unsuccessfully, to connect to a hydrant on the next block. Finally, the firefighters had to go a block and a half away to make a connection.

“At the most critical moment in the fire they were trying to get the water going,” Andrew said.

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The neighbors were particularly incensed by the attitude of the Detroit Police. “When the firefighters came they told us to get buckets and hoses and do whatever we could to spray things down,” Ian said. “Once the police came they told people to get the f___ back or we would be arrested. They didn’t help. This was after an hour of waiting for the fire department to come.”

Margaret, whose garage was severely damaged, wanted to get her dogs out of her house. “Those dogs are like my babies to me. The police said to me, ‘Keep your ass behind the line,’ and threatened to take me to jail.”

“The police just antagonized people,” continued Ian. “The police asserted their dominance. In order for people to go across the street they had to go around the block. Then after one hour the police left, even though the fire was still raging.”

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A Detroit firefighter with 15 years of service told the WSWS that many firemen were unable to respond to the neighborhood fires because they were preoccupied with securing downed power lines. His commanding officer estimated that 15 of the 58 fire companies activated to deal with Tuesday’s fires were “sitting on DTE’s lines.” Among these were Initial Response units, which could have put out the fires before they spread.

According to this veteran firefighter, the first 15 minutes of a fire is the most crucial time. Typically a fire can double in size every two to three minutes. With winds reaching 50 miles per hour, the fires spread unabated, placing Detroit families in extreme peril.

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The Bing administration moved to destroy the fire-damaged homes within days. Bing has expressed no outrage that the fires have taken place; instead the administration has pushed ahead with meetings to shut down parts of the city.

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Originally posted by chrisisall:
Wanna call for back-up?

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Dickies clothing brand launched today a limited-edition "Detroit 874" work pant to benefit unemployed workers in Detroit.

For each pair of Detroit 874 pants sold on its website, the company will donate a pair of new work pants to the Salvation Army of Metro Detroit, which helps workers in need.

Representatives of the Texas company commemorated the event by donating $25,000 and 5,000 work pants to the nonprofit. Actor, director and Detroit native Vondie Curtis Hall was at the press announcement, held at the Salvation Army's Harbor Light Center on Lawton Street.

The Detroit 874 is made in the United States and is an adaptation of Dickies' classic 874 work pant. It is dark navy twill with red stitching, red pocketing and a "Detroit 874" logo. Each pair is priced at $50 at www.dickies.com.

In 2009, the Salvation Army of Metro Detroit helped provided more than 3 million meals and at least 700,000 nights of shelter to the homeless.

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Detroit needs more gov't employees. Clearly.

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I couldn't believe what I saw. Firefighters with holes in their boots. Ambulances without blankets, police cars with flat tires and computers that did not work. The Fire Department brass did not compile statistics (500 arsons a month). The Police Department brass lied about the number of murders. (It was 375 in 2008, not 306.)

I wrote these stories and people in power started complaining. "Where's the good news. Where's the fair and balanced?"

Good news was hard to come by on the night of Sept. 7, when a firestorm swept across the city that engulfed at least 70 homes and overwhelmed the undermanned Detroit Fire Department. Warren, Grosse Pointe and Dearborn all came in to help. That's the first time that has happened since the '67 riots.

Earlier that evening, Mayor Dave Bing was stopped on the red carpet of the MGM Grand Casino before the premiere of a TV serial that features Detroit murder as its central theme.

"I'm hoping and believe that the filmmakers will present our city in a fair and balanced way," Bing said.

I do, too. But the image that sears from that night is of an 11-year-old dressed in a T-shirt and sneakers who helped firefighters pull hose while Bing and the city's other leaders were at the MGM.

No one expects the mayor to have been out pulling hose. But nobody expected an 11-year-old to do so, either.

Citizens want to know what gives. Why was the Detroit response to its own calamity an hour or more late? Where was the emergency response plan? Where was the mayor?

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Unfortunately, instead of offering the beleaguered citizens some sort of explanation of what went wrong with the Fire Department's response and reassurances that it will not happen again, the mayor and Fire Commissioner James Mack Jr. offered nothing but obfuscation.

Less than 24 hours after the fires began, Bing scolded reporters at a press conference, blaming the devastation on a natural disaster instead of the real culprit: a failure in leadership.

"It seems to me what you are asking us to do is to be able to give you ... some kind of plan less than 24 hours after this happened," Bing said.

Mack did little better. Though he has been a ranking official in the Fire Department for the better part of a decade, he said you can't expect a fire department to plan for such things as big fires, and offered this pearl: "There was a plan: for us to respond. And that's what we did."

I didn't get the quotes directly. I was locked out of the press conference after giving my name.

So I went upstairs in City Hall. Councilman Gary Brown agreed to see me.

"What's wrong with the city?" he said. "A vacuum in leadership. It's not a matter of funding. I suspect it's mismanagement."

You can't blame Bing and his administration for the woeful state of the city -- a cesspool of corruption and cronyism; a pile of dry tinder that has been piling up for more than a half-century. But you can't excuse them for a lack of a preparation, either.

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In my short time here, I have uncovered payments for renovations on firehouses that do not exist. I went to ask Mack about those irregularities late last year. His name appears on some of the paperwork. He referred me to Bing. Bing's office referred me to the Building Authority. I still haven't been able to get an answer about those contracts.

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Warren Evans, the former police chief, was fired because -- among other things -- he was seduced by the lights of Hollywood, making his own pilot for a reality TV show.

But in Evans' defense, he was competent and got results. Murder dropped more than 20 percent during his tenure -- a national record. And, believe me, those numbers are real. I checked. Who else in city government can claim success like that?

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