Houses disappear around broken hydrant in neglected Detroit neighborhood

Part of a series that examines the city’s woeful mismanagement of hydrants and the devastating impact on neighborhoods and residents. 

When firefighters arrived to a burning two-family house on Detroit’s west side Thursday evening, three children were wailing.

Their mom was in the house, they said.

But there was a problem: The hydrant outside the home was broken, just like it had been last month when a fire swept through two neighboring houses, which have been quickly razed.

Neighbors said the cracked hydrant on the 3000 block of Kendall has been broken for a year or more, marked with an yellow out-of-service disc.

In just the past two years, fires have destroyed at least six houses on the hydrant’s side of the block, according to fire department records and an onsite inspection. Directly east of the two recently demolished houses are two additional homes consumed by suspicious fires since July 2013.

It’s unclear why the Water and Sewerage Department (DSWD), which is responsible for maintaining and repairing the city’s 30,000 fire plugs, didn’t fix the hydrant. DWSD spokesman Gregory Eno said the department is investigating.
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In April, Motor City Muckraker filed a lawsuit against the city of Detroit for withholding public records about broken hydrants. Without the records, it’s impossible to know how many hydrants are broken, how long they are out of service and whether some neighborhoods are being neglected.

Since the city failed to fix the hydrant on Kendall, firefighters on Thursday were forced to scramble to find a working one while other firemen dashed into the burning home with hoses attached to the fire engine’s limited water supply.

For 15 minutes, firefighters battled blinding smoke and spreading flames while searching for the children’s mother, an arduous task hindered by yet another bad hydrant in a city with hundreds – if not more than 1,000.

Motor City Muckraker investigation: Detroit neglects hundreds of hydrants, feigns surprise

It turned out, the mother had briefly left the house when the fire broke out and wasn’t inside. The oldest child was 14 and was old enough to babysit, said Detroit Police Sgt. Cassandra Lewis.

While no one was injured, the bad hydrant was an example of the city’s continued failure to address serious public safety dangers in a timely manner, especially in Detroit’s neglected, disinvested neighborhoods.

Although downtown, Midtown and Corktown are experiencing a resurgence, many of the neighborhoods in post-bankruptcy Detroit are not.

“No one wants to live around here. All of my family and friends have moved,” Marsha Coleman told me on Kendall Street. “I’d move if I could.”

The Fire Department did not respond to our questions.

Since our series about the broken hydrants was published, Mayor Mike Duggan’s administration has acted swiftly, creating an electronic database for broken hydrants and calling for an inspection of all of the city’s hydrants, many of which are old and malfunctioning from a lack of maintenance.

Other stories in this series:

• Private contractors endanger lives, homes by mishandling hydrants
• March: 250 fires in houses buildings as arsonists grow bolder, hydrants break
• Here are 18 notable buildings in Detroit with out-of-service hydrants
• Neglected Wurlitzer forces downtown coffee shop to get water from hydrant

  detroit is burning, fire, Fire department, hydrant, Rescue

Steve Neavling

Steve Neavling lives and works in Detroit as an investigative journalist. His stories have uncovered corruption, led to arrests and reforms and prompted FBI investigations.

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