Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Detroit City Council Along With MPSC to Probe DTE Energy's Role in Fires

September 14. 2010 11:50AM

Detroit City Council calls for hearings on fires

Darren A. Nichols / The Detroit News

Detroit -- The Detroit City Council wants to bring in officials from DTE Energy and the city's fire department to discuss the cause of last week's fires that engulfed the city.

Dozens of structure fires were reported in a four-hour span that officials said were fanned by winds that gusted at 49 miles per hour, officials said.

DTE Energy said 750 power lines were downed because of the winds and that 50,000 customers across Wayne County lost power during the incident. The session with city council is scheduled for 3 p.m. on Sept. 29.

"I'm not suggesting it as a standpoint of pointing fingers or laying blame, but this is a public issue," Councilman Kenneth Cockrel Jr. said. "On a certain level this is being looked at as a failure of institutions. (It's) a failure of the city (and) a failure of DTE to protect the constituents both of those institutions serve. It's almost like on a certain level like a local miniature equivalent of the BP oil spill."

Mayor Dave Bing called the series of blazes that swept though the city last Tuesday a "natural disaster" and said very little could have been done to prevent them.

The fires, which required emergency help from five surrounding communities, engulfed at least 85 structures throughout the city , Bing said.

Some residents allege they called DTE to report flickering lights at a home after seeing someone trying to steal electricity or cable service. DTE officials confirm receiving a call and said crews made repairs before the fires were reported.

Several council members said they want to get to the bottom of all of the issues.

."We're calling it a natural disaster and it may be otherwise," Council President Charles Pugh said. "It may be neglect, oversight or failure to properly respond. That's not natural. People need to know what really happened."

Deputy Mayor Saul Green and representatives from the Detroit fire and police departments met with DTE officials to discuss the fires, response time and how to head off similar issues in the future.

The council called for the administration to allow a representative from the panel to sit in on those sessions.

"Those meetings that are taking place, the public can't see that. They don't know what the hell is going on," Cockrel said.

No injuries or deaths were reported in the fires. Investigators still are looking into the causes of the blazes, but believe the winds and downed wires played a role .

dnichols@detnews.com (313) 222-2073

From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20100914/METRO/9140403/City-Council-calls-for-hearings-on-fires#ixzz0zXNscblM


September 14, 2010 http://detnews.com/article/20100914/METRO/9140403

State to probe DTE's response to Detroit fires

DARREN A. NICHOLS
The Detroit News

Detroit -- The Michigan Public Service Commission announced today it is investigating the fires that engulfed the city last week and DTE Energy's response to them.

"The Michigan Public Service Commission has an obligation to ensure that public utilities provide customers with reasonably reliable service, protect the public from hazardous downed power lines, and promptly respond to and restore power to customers suffering from outages," Chairman Orjiakor Isiogu said.

The commission, which regulates utilities, also is hosting a public hearing about DTE at 1 p.m. on Sept. 29 in the East Showroom of the Cadillac Place Building.

Some residents say DTE took too long to respond to complaints about downed wires or flickering lights. Fanned by winds of 49 mph, the fires damaged 29 occupied homes last Tuesday.

The commission's investigation will look into how the storm affected the utility's distribution system; its response; whether changes are necessary; whether DTE failed to maintain its distribution system and whether that contributed to the outages; and the utility's response to customer calls about outages.

The announcement came the same day as Detroit City Council members said they want to bring in DTE Energy and Fire Department officials to discuss the blazes. The session is set for 3 p.m. on Sept. 29.

"I'm not suggesting it as a standpoint of pointing fingers or laying blame, but this is a public issue," Councilman Kenneth Cockrel Jr. said. "On a certain level this is being looked at as a failure of institutions. (It's) a failure of the city (and) a failure of DTE to protect the constituents both of those institutions serve. It's almost like on a certain level like a local miniature equivalent of the BP oil spill."

Mayor Dave Bing called the blazes a "natural disaster" and said very little could have been done to prevent them.

."We're calling it a natural disaster and it may be otherwise," Council President Charles Pugh said. "It may be neglect, oversight or failure to properly respond. That's not natural. People need to know what really happened."

Deputy Mayor Saul Green and representatives of the Detroit fire and police departments met with DTE officials last week to discuss the fires, response times and how to head off similar issues in the future.

The council called for the administration to allow a representative from the panel to sit in on those sessions.

"Those meetings that are taking place, the public can't see that. They don't know what the hell is going on," Cockrel said.

No injuries or deaths were reported in the fires. Investigators still are looking into the causes of the blazes, but believe the winds and downed wires played a role.

dnichols@detnews.com">dnichols@detnews.com (313) 222-2073

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