Quiet & slow. Those two words are not commonly used in the DFD when describing the overnight tour. Seems like for as long as I’ve been buffing & listening to Detroit each Battalion has there fair share of sleepless nights. Although some are without a doubt busier than others, you just never know where the trouble is going to begin & when it is going to end.
Friday night April 1st into the early morning hours of Saturday the 2nd was a very peaceful night for the DFD. Now I’m not here to complain about the lack of fire, loss or devastation. Whether or not I am touring the city accidents will happen & arson is going to occur. I don’t root for it, I just document it. I comment off of facts rather than matter of opinion. Throughout a firefighters 24 hour tour in Detroit, there is down time. There’s no doubt about that, it’s just less frequent than any other department in the world when it comes to working fires. However as my fellow buffs & I know, in this city, it can only be quiet for so long. Saturday the 2nd around 5 AM is when the proverbial structure fire seal was broken.
Central office transmitted the box for a reported vacant dwelling at Cadillac & Barker in the cities Sixth Battalion. First arriving companies were met with heavy fire from a vacant two & half story dwelling. The second arriving wagon was quickly instructed to dump their monitor. Shortly after Ladder 19 was put into operation & Chief 6 requested an additional Engine for RIT. The wind was blowing fairly strong to the south making the D side vacant commercial structure an immediate problem. After getting the ladder pipe into operation, a line was stretched into the vacant exposure to the top floor. The fire building eventually collapsed towards the D side minutes after & companies wasted no time putting the fire under control.
This was in fact a barn burner. It was “Going Throughout” a term so often used over the DFD’s 800 MHz digital radio talk-group. The heat was so intense at one point that water was being tossed onto Squad 3 & Ladder 19’s aerial which were positioned in the street towards the A/D corner of the fire building. I’m not a marshal nor a DFD official but it doesn’t take a degree or hours of schooling to figure out this was a pour job. Someone wanted this building on the ground, whether it be a serial arsonist or a hired out shadow. This was indeed a suspicious fire, as almost all are in the 313. I’ve heard members say 99% of fires they respond to are arson related. That is an astronomical ratio this day in age, for the community it’s dangerous & demoralizing but I wouldn’t count on drastic change any time soon.
See with the incredibly dangerous situations these firefighters walk into, they know the job, what needs to done & they do it. There’s no sheep herding & there’s no room for cowards. There has been many times where I’ve been on the fire ground watching in awe. Thinking to myself there’s no chance any of the departments back home would even step foot into a structure like that. And more often back home, this would be a third, fourth, fifth or general alarm. They hold seconds or thirds to a Box Alarm assignment & the one common denominator at all there jobs is that everybody works. Everyone is doing something all the time, not a single rubber necker. These guys & gals walk out of the houses smoking from head to toe. Looking like a hot cup of chili on a cold winter day, bathed in soot & steam. They sit on the front lawn, take a breather, grab a fresh bottle & head right back in without hesitation. It’s impressive folks & if you ever get a chance to witness it please do. It’s sweat & blood, guts & glory, it’s old school firefighting at its finest.
Photos are courtesy of TDB member Paul Bassett (www.towniesphotos.smugmug.com). More pictures from this fire & more can be found on his website here … Detroit Barker & Cadillac 4-2-11
-Mj Fernandez 4/14/11
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