Fires raged in Detroit after power lines fell throughout the city sparking at least 85 blazes. Witnesses and victims said they repeatedly called DTE Energy and the city's 911 service to no avail. DTE says it is investigating the complaints.
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Fire losses in Detroit blamed on emergency response missteps
New laws to be considered
BY STEVE NEAVLING
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
At the heated hearing, council members blasted DTE and the police and fire departments for slow response times, neglected power lines and lack of communication.
"Citizens still don't have a place to live and have no money, and no one is accepting responsibility," Councilwoman JoAnn Watson told the more than 100 people attending the meeting. "The cause was not natural."
Some residents said they waited up to 90 minutes for firefighters to respond that day. Others said fires were bound to break out because trees rested on power lines.
DTE officials acknowledged they could have responded more quickly to the downed power lines and pledged to improve response times.
"I give you my ... guarantee that the city of Detroit will receive as good or better response times as any area in our service territory," said Steven Kurmas, president and chief operating officer of DTE subsidiary Detroit Edison.
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.
Firefighters took 90 minutes to respond while the fire consumed seven neighbors' homes, she told the Detroit City Council at a hearing on the 85 wind-fueled fires that destroyed more than 70 homes on Sept. 7.
"There was nothing we could do," said Jackson, 30, who lived on Moenart Street. "It's a terrible situation that we're going to struggle with for a long time."
In response to what they heard at the hearing, council members said they will pursue two ordinances: one likely will require DTE Energy in the future to compensate residents for any damage caused by power lines; the other would require DTE to respond more quickly to downed power lines. A specific response time was not suggested at the hearing. However, it is unlikely the council has the authority to require DTE to take any action in regard to its customers.
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.
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.
With ripe conditions for a widespread fire -- wind gusts of 50 m.p.h., vulnerable power lines and dry weather -- fire officials said the blazes were all but inevitable.
"It was a day unlike any we've ever seen," Mack said.
Council members blasted DTE for not warning the city of potential fires that day, especially when the utility received numerous warnings about wind from its high-tech weather forecasting system.
"I'm shocked to hear that," Councilman Ken Cockrel Jr. said.
Steven Kurmas, president and chief operating officer of Detroit Edison, a subsidiary of DTE, said the company plans to begin alerting emergency personnel of windy weather and to respond more quickly during storms.
"I commit to you that we will continue to step up our response time," Kurmas said.
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.
Contact STEVE NEAVLING: 313-223-3327
October 7, 2010
http://detnews.com/article/20101007/METRO01/10070377
Fire, utility officials defend handling of Sept. 7 Detroit fires
CHRISTINE MACDONALD AND DARREN A. NICHOLS
The Detroit News
Detroit — Fire Chief James Mack on Wednesday defended his force’s handling of the Sept. 7 fires that damaged 71 city residences, saying “any fire department in the country” would have struggled.
Mack told the City Council his department took 591 calls within 24 hours that day, compared to 80 on an average day.
But residents affected by the fires and council members weren’t so sure — peppering Mack and Detroit Edison President Steve Kurmas with criticism during a special hearing that attracted about 100 people.
“All of our houses burned down so quick,” said Keyana Jackson, 30, who told the council she lost nearly everything when her home on Moenart Street on the east side burned.
“We couldn't save our animals or anything. We’re still suffering.”
Among the questions that arose during the hearing: Did babysitting power lines slow the response? Like many departments, Detroit firefighters guard downed live wires. Unlike other forces, Detroit doesn’t bill Detroit Edison for the time. Neighbors complained that some lines lingered for hours, sparking fires.
“This particular incident was severely hampered because our firefighters were sitting on lines for up to three hours,” said Councilman Gary Brown.
Kurmas said Detroit Edison is working to improve communications with fire dispatchers to respond quicker to lines guarded by firefighters and let dispatchers know when utility crews would arrive. The average response time is two hours; the city wants to cut that in half.
Were illegal hookups to blame?
Kurmas said investigators have found evidence of illegal jury-rigged power at abandoned homes near the fires, but they haven’t proved their suspicions. The utility last year had 60,000 proven cases of energy theft.
“It’s a terrible problem for us,” Kurmas said.
Did firefighters answer the call?For the first time since the 1967 riots, the Fire Department had to call in help from suburban departments — five total — during the blazes. Mack said his staff called about 30 off-duty city firefighters for help, and about 14 came in.
Brown and Councilwoman JoAnn Watson said part of the problem is the lack of residency laws for emergency responders. The state eliminated the laws more than 10 years ago, and Brown said he knows of fire and police officials who live in Ohio and northern Michigan. Police Chief Ralph Godbee wants to contractually require officers to live within 25 miles of the city.
What caused the fires?Mack said many of the fires’ causes will be undetermined because many of the homes were so destroyed.
“A lot of them we will never know what started them,” Mack said.
Kurmas said the utility is awaiting a final report from the fire department to “make a determination as to what really occurred.”
“We know there were wires that were burned and came down,” Kurmas said. “We suspect some of those wires caused the fire (and) we suspect some of those wires may be the result of the fire. (But) it’s really a job to sort that out and make that determination.”
Councilman James Tate said the explanations aren’t “good enough.” Watson said residents still haven’t received good answers and took a shot at Mayor Dave Bing for declaring the fires a “natural disaster.”
“It was not natural,” Watson said.
Kurmas said no one has filed claims for damages from the incident.
The Michigan Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities, is also investigating DTE Energy, the parent company of Detroit Edison.
cmacdonald@detnews.com
(313) 222-2396
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