Tragedy of errors: What went wrong

Norfessia Shannon

Au-Jane Shannon

Jeanette Ausby

Annette Eggleston

he fatal April 1 fire on the 8th floor of the Pallister Plaissance Apartments building typified problems with equipment, communications, staffing and basic services that hamper the Detroit Fire Department's ability to fight blazes throughout the city. At Pallister, as elsewhere, a nearby fire hydrant would not provide water. The aged aerial truck sent to the scene couldn't extend its ladder, a problem fire officials knew about before sending it to the fire. Firefighters who ran inside to rescue residents on the floor even lacked basic radios to communicate with crews outside. By the time they extinguished the fire, four people were dead and a young girl was left crippled from falling more than 80 feet to escape the flames and smoke.

The sequence of events

1. 11:33 a.m., April 1: The fire starts in apartment 811 of Pallister Plaissance Apartments. The cause of the accidental fire remains unclear but centers around a careless smoker or a defective stove.
11:35 a.m.: Two police officers spot smoke coming from the eighth floor of the 12-story building and call for fire trucks.

2. 11:37 a.m.: Fire dispatchers send Engine 17 and Ladder 7 — whose aerial ladder won’t raise. The two trucks are the only ones dispatched to the 188-unit buiding, despite a department policy to send one working ladder truck and three pumpers to any fire in an occupied dwelling.

3.11:39 a.m.: Ladder 7 and Engine 17 leave their station at 6100 Second Blvd. and head for Pallister, about a mile away.

4.11:40 a.m.: Fire and heavy smoke in the hallway traps several eighth-floor residents, including 26-year-old Norfessia Shannon and her daughters, Daree, 7, and Au-Jane, 2.

Contact the reporters at churt@detnews.com and mclaxton@detnews.com.