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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Flint's arson numbers being called an epidemicWednesday, May 19, 2010
Tags:flint, arson, fire, fire department, dayne walling, local, lori dougovito
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Lori Dougovito
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FLINT (WJRT) -- (05/19/10)--It's being called an arson epidemic: an unprecedented amount of fires in the city of Flint.
All of them -- 198 in total -- have happened since late March when public safety layoffs went into effect.
The Flint Fire Department has seen layoffs in recent years and plenty of arsons. But nothing of this caliber.
We decided to investigate by spending the night with fire crews on the job.
March 24 is a day Flint Firefighters Union President Raul Garcia remembers well. After weeks that already exceeded firefighting averages, it's when the increase in fires started.
"They're making more work and putting us in more danger," said Battalion Chief Theresa Root.
Just hours prior to public safety layoffs, Garcia left on March 25 to go on a vacation. That day, 23 firefighter layoffs went into effect.
Two fire stations were closed. In a 20-hour stretch, nine vacant homes went up in smoke.
"This is a series of coordinated criminal attacks likely to have been timed to try to achieve some kind of perverted political purpose," said Mayor Dayne Walling in a press conference.
The big question: Who was setting the fires?
"I think it's someone with knowledge of what they're doing. I'll leave it at that," said Flint Police Chief Alvern Lock.
"I got back the (March) 29," Garcia said. "In those four days, they probably had about 30 fires. We've had busy days. But for it to be continuous ... "
In total the Flint Fire Department reports there's been 198 working fires since March 24. That's nearly triple the number fought in the same time period last year.
One-hundred-fifty of the fires were in abandoned buildings. Investigators believe the vast majority of them were intentionally set.
On a recent Tuesday night, ABC12 spent the night at Fire Station No. 1. It was for the most part quiet, which was unusual given their recent run. For some time, there were no fires.
But at 3:30 a.m., a crowd had gathered to watch a vacant apartment building burn, including Ashley Foor and her 2-year-old son Thomas.
"I think this is like maybe the 15th one in a week we've seen," Ashley said.
The fire was out by dawn.
"We're here to protect," Garcia said. "And we almost felt like we had our hands tied."
As fires have been set one by one across the city, firefighters say it's lucky no one has been seriously injured.
"We have had one entrapment," said Battalion Chief Tony Tinnin. "I'll say by the grace of God, it occurred very very close to Fire Station 5."
That fire was not arson.
One fire over Easter weekend, a family of nearly 20 was displaced. The fire spread from one vacant home to another to the one the family was living in.
Flint police, State Police and the ATF arson investigators continue to work all these cases.
Flint police Sgt. Jim Hamilton says arrests have been made and warrants will be sought, but he declined to go into detail.
In the midst of all of this, 34 laid-off firefighters have been called back to work and stations three and eight were reopened May 10 thanks to a federal SAFER grant.
The grant will fund 39 positions for two years. To keep the money, all staff must be kept. There can be no layoffs.
On the firefighters' first Friday back, photojournalist Norm Fairhurst went back and it was busy. In a roughly 12-hour period there were four fires -- all of them in abandoned buildings.
"We didn't expect the increased staff to reduce the number of fires," Tinnin said. "We just knew it was going to help us fight the house fires."
For a department that's been calling on mutual aid for weeks, fortunately they responded. That's good news.
"This job's going to be a little bit more doable for a city the size of Flint," Tinnin said.
Testing is underway to hire five firefighters to fill the remaining open positions the grant funds. Arson investigators urge anyone with any information about any of these fires to call Flint police.
(Copyright ©2010 WJRT-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)
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Thu May 20, 2010 11:13 am |
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Derrick1965
F L I N T O I D
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| Maybe we can make it into the Guiness Book of World Records? |
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Thu May 20, 2010 10:21 pm |
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brianstarr
F L I N T O I D
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| as far as the arsons go this is what happens when you dont do a good enough job taking these dumps down before they have a chance to burn.the red tape needs to be cut so these dumps can come down faster i have 3 rotting houses on my block that have been that way for 14 of the 16 years i have lived here and that is unacceptable the yards have become dumping grounds for brush and trash and other debris i have to agree with the demo inspector when he says the city has lost the war on blight so why bother even trying |
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Fri May 21, 2010 10:35 am |
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