Cityscape

Detroit Routinely Sends Defective Rigs to Fires, Motor City Muckraker Reports

July 31, 2015, 9:00 AM

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Photo by Steve Neavling of Motor CIty Muckraker

Editor's Note: Read City's Response to Story

Steve Neavling of Motor City Muckraker writes in his latest report on the Detroit Fire Department that the city "routinely violates state and federal safety laws by sending dangerously defective ladder trucks and engines to fires in occupied houses, high-rise apartments and commercial buildings, delaying response times, hampering rescue efforts and endangering firefighters, an 18-month Motor City Muckraker investigation has found."

He goes on to report: 

In fact, at least 47 people have been injured or killed in fires where defective rigs were sent since Jan. 1, 2014, according to an analysis of thousands of records.

When rigs break down or malfunction, fires often burn longer and spread to adjacent houses and buildings, devouring neighborhoods, driving up insurance rates and accelerating the decades-long exodus.  

To blame are chronic issues that have plagued the fire department for decades – shoddy maintenance, poor management decisions and reckless budget cuts.


Read more:  Motor City Muckraker


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