Ricardo Thomas / The Detroit News Richard Stein, chief executive of public safety, in front of a ladder truck that had to be repaired Sunday before the briefing, said the department plans to buy fire equipment and hire more firefighters.

Archer concedes shortfalls

Detroit News report prompts overhaul

By Melvin Claxton and Charles Hurt / The Detroit News

    Hours after The Detroit News detailed extensive failings in the Detroit Fire Department, Mayor Dennis Archer and top fire officials announced sweeping policy changes.
    After meeting much of Sunday morning, city and department officials outlined six initiatives.
    The department plans to bring in outside experts, better track warranty work, improve inspection of new trucks, consider contracting with outside firms to handle maintenance, streamline bill-paying and better train drivers.
    At least 21 people have died in Detroit fires over the past four years when fire trucks sent to their rescue didn’t work or the closest stations were temporarily closed, a nine-month Detroit News investigation revealed.
    The News found that policies followed by Detroit Fire Department officials hampered rescue efforts at these and other fires, contributing to deaths. In each case, fire officials knew of the danger beforehand but did nothing.
    What’s more, the Fire Department continues to place the lives of residents and firefighters in peril every day because it has too few men, uses trucks that don’t work and relies on broken equipment.
    “One life lost is one life too many,” Archer said in a statement. “We will do better.”
    Aides to Archer and Fire Commissioner Charles Wilson explained the changes to the Fire Department’s policies during a news conference at the fire station that housed the ladder truck that couldn’t save residents of the Pallister Plaissance Apartments in an April fire.
    Neither Archer nor Wilson attended the briefing. Wilson was working his other job as a National Guard general. Archer was accompanying Vice-President Al Gore on a campaign stop at University of Michigan-Dearborn.
    Richard Stein, who oversees Detroit’s police and fire departments, said the mayor is grateful for the report and the administration would use The News series in developing plans to fix the department.
    “Even though it’s embarrassing, we appreciate the analysis,” Stein told the group of reporters.
    Archer, he said, has given Wilson “an open checkbook” to improve the department. Stein said the mayor plans to buy new fire trucks, hire more firefighters, revamp the department’s repair shop and hire consultants to review every aspect of the city’s fire-fighting operations.
    Stein and Deputy Fire Commissioner Tyrone Scott said some of the blame for the department’s problems should be borne by firefighters and low level fire department officials who failed to bring problems to their attention.
    “The mayor and the fire department regrets any loss of life,” said Stein. Archer in his statement and Stein at the press briefing insisted that the 21 deaths represented only 1 percent of the nearly 88,000 fires the department has battled since 1994.
    The News, however, based its findings on an analysis of 119 fatal fires since 1996 for which the department was able to provide information.
    The press conference began with a demonstration of the aerial ladder at the station near Detroit’s New Center area.
    But fire officials had to close that fire company for three hours Sunday afternoon so department mechanics could fix hydraulic problems on the rig before the demonstration. Officials made no mention of the repairs during the briefing.
    Inside the firehouse, rags sopped up hydraulic fluid that leaked from the ladder truck before it went into the shop.
    The truck, which replaced the one that didn’t work at the Pallister fire on April 1, was built in 1985 and out of service for nearly a year until earlier this year after its Ohio manufacturer, Sutphen Corp., completely overhauled it.
    When the rig arrived in 1999 for repairs, Sutphen officials inspected the truck and were appalled at its condition.
    In a sternly worded letter, a Sutphen official blasted the department’s maintenance, calling the truck a “death trap.”
    “I was completely appalled, first by the external appearance and frightened by the mechanics of this truck,” wrote John Rideout, Sutphen’s service manager. “My first thoughts were who has messed this truck up.”
    The Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA) has also launched an investigation into the Fire Department’s inspection of air tanks after The News raised questions about whether the tanks were being checked according to state law.
    Stein said Sunday that fewer than 10 percent of the firefighters’ tanks had not been inspected. MIOSHA officials said they expect to complete their probe this month.