Detroit is besieged by 5,000 annual arsons and deep budget cuts. As a result, insurance rates are rising, property values are plummeting and people are fleeing.
On Sunday afternoon, Larry paced outside while flames spread through four neighboring, vacant houses on the east side.
As Gov. Rick Snyder announces plans today to take over the city’s finances today, the state will be responsible for Detroit’s public safety crisis.
Now some are questioning whether the victims’ fate would have been different if the closest rigs – Engine 47 and Ladder 30 – weren’t out of service, which has become a grave and growing problem.
The smoke was too thick, suffocating and disorienting to reach the 83-year-old woman in her bedroom.
Unable to find working hydrants, firefighters dashed through heavy smoke and extreme heat to rescue a lifeless 10-month-girl from her upstairs bedroom early this morning.
From Saturday night through this morning, fires far outpaced the number of firefighters who were able to respond.
A firefighter with a wife and 3 children now qualifies for food stamps. My hero husband has now had to start working 3 separate jobs to keep the bills paid and food in our kids’ tummies.
As I write this, thieves in a backhoe are stealing large metal beams even as a fire burns in the plant, a few buildings away.
“Oh, God,” Janet Howard said, fearing the spreading flames would devour the entire block of Garland and Canfield, where an arsonist also set a blaze the day before. “Please. Please, God.”