Detroit council blasts DTE, police response over Sept. wave of fires

[Starry Messenger]

http://www.freep.com/article/20101006/NEWS01/101006066/1318/Detroit-council-blasts-DTE-police-response-over-Sept.-wave-of-fires

The Detroit City Council today blamed a series of missteps for much of the damage caused by 85 wind-fueled fires that tore through the city on Sept. 7, dismissing claims by Mayor Dave Bing that the blazes were a natural disaster.

During a heated hearing, council members blasted DTE Energy and the police and fire departments for slow response times, neglected and dangerous power lines and lack of communication during the fires that destroyed more than 70 houses.

“The cause was not natural,” JoAnn Watson said to loud applause from more than 100 people in the audience.


<snip>

Some residents testified that they waited up to 90 minutes for firefighters to respond, while others said fires were bound to break out because of trees resting on power lines.

At least twenty homes (most of a city block) were fully-engulfed in flames on Robinwood, east of Van Dyke on Detroit's east side.
A firefighter captain with 32 years on the job called it the biggest fire he's seen in Detroit since Poletown fire in the 1980s.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010.

[maryf]

1. K&Rnt

[Starry Messenger]

2. Thanks maryf.

[maryf]

5. of course, nt.

[leftstreet]

3. K&R

That's just sickening

[Starry Messenger]

4. Agreed leftstreet.

I'm glad the city's residents aren't backing down.

[Hannah Bell]

6. kr

[Starry Messenger]

7. Thank you.

[Cal Carpenter]

8. Did you know the mayor was on DTE's board for many years? More quotes and stuff:

(from a recent hearing, although I don't think it's the same event as the article)

Williams was especially incensed with the justification by Bing that the fires were a ‘natural disaster.’ “I find it troubling when someone tries to blame God when the wires belong to DTE,” stated Williams to the panel. “It is asinine to say that wind caused the fires. All this publicity about natural disaster is preposterous. Any time a human will try to blame the creator to protect a corporation—I have a problem with that. He is supposed to represent the people of Detroit. The answer he gave only benefited DTE."

“September 7 was not a natural disaster, it was caused by human error and negligence. We have a clear case here of a cover up of evidence and negligence. I call for the MPSC to call in federal investigators, as they did in San Bruno California,” stated Amos referring to the recent gas explosion that has claimed its eighth victim.

Amos also requested the state attorney general file an injunction on the city to stop the demolition of the homes involved in the fire, equating it to covering up the scene of a crime. “How can there be an investigation if the city is allowed to remove the fire ruins?”

Amos, who said he is for the recall of Bing, said, “There is a conflict of interest with a DTE executive in the mayor’s office. The president of DTE was a major contributor to Bing. The mayor understood exactly what he was saying when he called it a natural disaster. If DTE were responsible, they would have to pay 100 percent of damages to renters and homeowners. That’s what he is trying to cover up.”

An emotional Sandra Hines made a passionate plea for lawyers to come forward to sue DTE. “We need lawyers to put these people in jail or pay damages,” stated Hines. “I am insulted that DTE has only one person assigned to making an investigation into all the people who lost homes. They have a multi billion-dollar surplus off of us. DTE is a corporate monster.”

--snip--

“Senior citizens sitting in the dark in wheel chairs. A man fell down stairs and died in the dark because he did not have power. They are not God and they seem to be playing God. There are laws. We need some lawyers with courage who would help people.”

Lots more at link:
http://wsws.org/articles/2010/oct2010/mpsc-o01.shtml

[Starry Messenger]

9. No, I didn't.

x( The meeting last night seems to have been rather revealing, and Bing was rebuked for his remark about "natural disaster". http://www.freep.com/article/20101007/NEWS01/10070383/1318/Fire-losses-in-Detroit-blamed-on-emergency-response-missteps

Hearing on Detroit fires exposes missteps

Keyana Jackson choked back tears as she recounted the horrifying fires that ripped through her neighborhood, leveling her home and garage and killing her two dogs.

<snip>

Council members rebuked Mayor Dave Bing for calling the fires a natural disaster, saying the blazes could have been avoided or at least better contained if not for slow emergency responses, lack of communication and neglected and dangerous power lines that were bound to spark a fire.

<snip>

Among the findings, according to testimony at the hearing:

• Despite warnings of strong winds that day, DTE never alerted emergency responders to the potential for downed power lines causing fires.

• DTE averaged more than two hours to respond to downed lines, which are believed to have sparked some of the blazes.

• Of the 25 off-duty firefighters called in to help, 14 came in. Others either could not be reached or declined to come in. Some live more than 25 miles from the city. But Steve Kirschner, vice president of the Detroit Fire Fighters Association, said after the meeting that those who called the off-duty firefighters did not mandate that they come in. "If this was a mandatory call-up, I have no doubt in my mind that they would have responded quickly."

• Illegal power hookups, which often spark fires, reached more than 60,000 in metro Detroit last year. A DTE official said most of those are in Detroit.

• Residents calling 911 received a busy signal.

• The city leveled most of the destroyed homes, leaving investigators with little to no ability to investigate.

"For a lot of these, we will never know the fire's origin or the cause of the fire," Fire Commissioner James Mack Jr. told the council.

DTE keeps trying to pin this on illegal hookups, but I remember from previous discussions about this that DTE emerged as one of the most draconian and capricious power services that I'd ever heard of. They sound like the mob.

[Cal Carpenter]

10. Re: illegal hookups

A couple things I've learned as I've followed this situation, along with every winter's shut-off horror stories in Detroit.

A lot of times the illegal hookups are done by a landlord, and so the renter gets screwed when DTE discovers it and shuts it off. The tenants have no ability to get it hooked back up because the account belongs to the landlord who likely owes a lot of money.

And when a resident reports problems, DTE ignores them or even threatens them, as was the case in some of the fires in question here:

"In every case that has been investigated by the World Socialist Web Site the September 7 fires were the product of fallen power lines. Entire blocks were nearly destroyed as was evident on Robinwood Street, near Seven Mile and Van Dyke on the east side. There, the fire began after a power line came down on the garage of the house belonging to Shirley Hargrave. Hargrave had complained to DTE that she was having problems with the line the previous Friday, three days before the fire. Despite repeated calls, the utility company ignored her pleas, threatening at one point to charge her for a service call if she continued with her complaints."

[Starry Messenger]

11. Wow, that is really fucked up.

http://dailyme.com/story/2010100700002114/fire-losses-detroit-blamed-emergency-response.html

Because DTE took more than two hours to address downed power lines, some firefighters were forced to guard the downed lines instead of responding to fires, city officials said.

Deputy Mayor Saul Green said the Mayor's Office is conducting its own investigation, which should be wrapped up in a month.

I think the Mayor should recuse himself from that investigation since he used to be on the board of DTE. You've got a situation here where the residents are hostage to this company and have no recourse. They aren't at fault for what their landlords may have done and they will die without heat. And then to be threatened for following the procedure for reporting the downed lines? There should be heads rolling. I'm not sure why this story isn't getting more attention.

[Cal Carpenter]

12. The reason it's not getting more attention

Because it touches on the taboo issues that all politicians try to avoid - corporate greed in general, the deterioration of infrastructure, privatization of public utilities and total failure of any 'regulation, and the heart of it - poverty. This is happening in a terribly poor city where politicians are playing games with people's lives. The victims here have no power at all. Sure, some pols will make rhetorical references to these issues but this case is way too real for them. It is obvious how complicit they are.

This situation magnifies how our 'democracy' is a joke. There is nothing of the people, for the people, by the people here. The more attention this gets, the more obvious that becomes.

I'm surprised the Detroit Free Press is providing as much coverage as they are, honestly, because while the fires last month were particularly horrible, there are deaths every year because of DTE's greed and they barely get a mention in the major papers here afaik.

[Cal Carpenter]

13. This is a sign of what's to come

for a lot of people in this country. Our infrastructure is failing and we're getting crumbs. Right now the impact is on poor, powerless people. At the rate things are going, a hell of a lot more of us are gonna end up that way. So consider it a warning or a wake up call but everyone needs to look at this shit because this is where we are headed as the rich get richer and the poor get poorer...and more numerous...

[Hannah Bell]

14. not a message that's getting much play at du, either

[Starry Messenger]

15. Thanks Cal.

I'm a little annoyed with how much play the TN fire story has been getting here, and this is getting passed by. It's not a contest or anything, but until people see that it's the whole system that is patchy and full of dangerous holes and not just on any one person's responsibility than life is going to be a constant series of OMG!!11 moments for folks, I guess. Having San Bruno blow up in CA was a huge event that is still getting attention and sunshine on PGE. I hate to think it's just because it was a middle-class neighborhood that it is getting that attention...

[Cal Carpenter]

22. No prob

The thing that I find most concerning is that so few are willing to connect the dots and see that this is all part of the same root problem. I can't see it any other way. Classism is definitely a factor. I think it's easier for folks to address poverty on a different continent than it is in their own neighborhoods, and to look at all these symptoms as disparate 'issues', than to recognize the enormity of the systemic problem..

[maryf]

16. kicknt

[Starry Messenger]

17. Hey!

:yourock:

[salin]

18. While much of the country shrugs its shoulders per stories from Detroit

as if ... "so sad"... the turns away to other things ala "it can't happen here" - I have feared for years that Detroit is a harbinger - a proverbial canary in the coal mine.

I am fond of Detroit - worked with the schools in the early 90s. Back then it wasn't devastated, but it was decaying (on average 3 abandoned homes per block) across the city. Have lived in other cities since then, that seem to be two or three stages away from Detroit in the early 90s.

[Starry Messenger]

19. That's how I feel too, salin.

It's a canary in a coal mine. I lived in Oakland, which is still hanging on, but it has several of the same systemic problems...the destruction of the manufacturing base. I don't know why people think it can't happen to them. I think more is going to happen all over, and within a few years. I'm not sure that the suburbs quite realize their relationship to the port cities.

[salin]

20. denial

and self-absorption.

Now in Indianapolis - live in the city. In the six years the deterioration in my area is pretty quick and visible.

I think for many it is easily attributed to "temporary" economic problems. Having lived it before - I believe it is much more structural.

Lived in the Bay Area in the mid-late nineties. Oakland is comparable. Glad to hear it is 'hanging on' - but am guessing (unless things greatly improved in the past decade) that there are areas that are as desolate/desperate as Detroit.

In my urban neighborhood in a midwestern city - we are growing (sadly) in that direction. Don't think it is simply because of the current recession.

[Starry Messenger]

21. No, there haven't been any great improvements

Not in the heavily stressed out areas. It hasn't come to the same level of desolation, with the abandoned neighborhoods, but it has been really harsh since the downturn of the dot-com boom. There was a little activity for a few years in Oakland with the upswing. But then the bubble burst and those businesses left. The same structural problems still exist.

Jerry tried to revitalize some of the "healthy" neighborhoods, I don't think that had much benefit for deep East Oakland or West Oakland. Ignacio De La Fuente puts a lot of love and care into Fruitvale (his district), which is where I lived. I had to move closer to work, so I'm in the Peninsula now. I get homesick for Oakland. It has a lot of heart.

[Romulox]

23. The last thread on this subject devolved into claims of gentrification and racial cleansing

And also a bizarre theory regarding urban farms that tied in somehow. No amount of factual information from anyone with any actual knowledge of Detroit could dissuade them. Your OP wasn't exactly the ringleader, but also didn't exactly shine any light on the subject.

That's why people who are actually from Michigan won't rally around OPs like this.

[Cal Carpenter]

24. Now I don't usually get into this sort of shit

But you are totally misrepresenting what happened on that old thread. I had to go back and look at it.

YOU brought up gentrification first, and I (not Hannah or Starry) mentioned the urban farms in a sarcastic aside, and you ran with it. I actually took the time to post links and citations and quotes to reply to your comments and then you mysteriously vanished at the first sign of a substantial discussion. Was it all ridiculously off-topic? Sure, by that point it was.

Look, I'm not a joiner or a cheerleader. I agree with Hannah some of the time, disagree with her other times. I'm not here to get into a he-said she-said thing but you are not telling the truth here.

As I said on that other thread, I AM from the Detroit area, have lived here most of my life. I have no idea what you mean about 'OPs like this' - all I see above is a news article from a major media source. An article that shows how fucked up the situation is in Detroit right now in regard to services provided by the city and the big energy company, DTE.

There's nothing to rally around, no hidden agenda, but a lot of issues are raised by this situation, along with the San Bruno explosion and many other examples of failing infrastructure and underfunded services.

And here you are (someone who I sometimes agree with, sometimes not) deliberately bringing up gentrification and urban farms yourself. It sounds to me like you wouldn't mind seeing this thread derailed so you can discredit this OP as well. Pardon me for saying so but that's a real shitty tactic dude. And here I am getting sucked into it. Well, my two cents have been put in so I'll step back from this subthread now.

[Romulox]

25. Ummm, keep searching. The last thread was a continuation of an earlier argument.

"I have no idea what you mean about 'OPs like this'"

Do a bit more searching. Try "ethnic cleansing" & "urban farming" & detroit. I am NOT making this up, and it's lame for you to do a half-hearted search and declare the matter settled. :hi:

edit: THIS thread is the genesis of the bizarre "ethnic cleansing" charges agains the African-American mayor of Detroit, Dave Bing (the thread you found in the search has the same poster unable to name the mayor, but hey--ethnic cleansing charges first, names second, eh?) Later on this ethnic cleansing meme got wedded to some bizarre urban farming scheme. So yes, while it was I who brought up those issues in the thread in question, it was only to point out that the OP and other contributors have been throwing around such bizarre (not to say counter-productive) theories in similar threads. All which calls into question both their knowledge of the area and their agendas.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7874848

[blindpig]

27. Try changing it to 'class cleansing'....

it might make more sense to ya.

It ain't nothin' but capitalism.

[Romulox]

26. So...you bailing on your job as a mediator?

:hi: