For decades, the sights and sounds in Detroit around Halloween were not those of costumed children frolicking in the streets as they went door-to-door seeking sweets from neighbors.
The view in the Motor City consisted mainly of flames, the sounds were that of blaring fire apparatus sirens and the smells those of soot and ash.
All of that has changed drastically in the last two decades, so much so that the dreaded name "Devil's Night" -- changed to "Angel's Night" by the city in 1997 -- has begun fading into Detroit legend.
"Firefighters would come in years ago and they'd never see the firehouse until the next morning when they were relieved," Detroit Deputy Fire Commissioner Dave Fornell said Wednesday in an interview with Firehouse.com. "It was just fire after fire after fire. There were structures, a lot of cars, a lot of garages."
Even saying it was "fire after fire after fire" is an incredible understatement. During the three-day span culminating with Halloween, Detroit's firefighters for years were pushed to the absolute limits of hard work and endurance. The worst of it came in 1984 when 810 fires -- and, no, that is not a typo -- happened in that short period.
One of the biggest reasons for such high numbers in those days was the city's landscape and economy greatly suffering from the decimation of the auto industry by foreign competitors, which caused a significant amount of people to simply pick up and leave. With so many homes and buildings abandoned or vacant and jobs hard to find, the crime statistics skyrocketed and arson became a pastime for many youth in the city.
Fornell says things were so bad for a time that fire buffs would come to the city and rent hotel rooms downtown and specifically request one with a window facing north.
"They'd come in with pizzas and coolers of beer and just sit and watch the city burn like it was the Super Bowl."
Eventually, the community decided to do something about it and an army of volunteers numbering close to 6,000 began patrolling the streets and calling in any suspicious activity.
"The city has nurtured it but it was a very organic, grass-roots campaign where people said, 'Hey, this is what we want to do to help,'" Fornell said. "They were the glue that held it all together when everything was going to hell. They deserve a tremendous amount of credit."
By 1994, the number of fires had dropped to a still whopping 354, and then it plummeted to 169 by 2010. A few consecutive years saw fire numbers in the 90s, but over the last three years, each of those three nights have seen numbers that are on par with an average day in the city. There were only 54 fires from Oct. 29-31 this year, prompting the mayor and public safety officials to confidently state that Angel's Night is over.
"There are a number of things that are causing the decline," Fornell said. "The primary thing is they're demolishing a tremendous amount of buildings here. I think it was 10,000 last year, so the fire load is going down simply because they're knocking down these vacant buildings.
"Detroit is coming back."
Several other smaller measures have also contributed, including the city instituting a 6 p.m. curfew for children under 17 during those three days, a ban on gasoline being poured into containers unless the buyer's personal information was logged during the sale, and laws to aggressively prosecute arsonists.
With the city finally experiencing some normalcy around Halloween, firefighters and police have had a chance to engage more with the community and promote a fun environment for Detroit's families and children. Fire stations have opened up for tours and candy giveaways, and Fornell says a police station even had the freedom to convert itself into a haunted house for a night.
"Quite frankly, there just isn't the fire activity anymore to justify this kind of mass mobilization," Detroit Fire Chief Eric Jones said at a press conference announcing an end to the Angel's Night campaign. "While they haven't had to put out as many fires, our firefighters have really been getting into the spirit of the Halloween activities."
"Next year, let's give Halloween back to the kids," Jones added.
Despite the sharp decline in incidents, Fornell assures that the city will still receive adequate fire coverage from on-duty crews. The bolstering efforts, however, will likely become a memory.
"All of our normal on-duty crews will remain the same going forward," he said. "What we were doing for quite a few years was we put four extra engines and a ladder truck in service, and these rigs could move anywhere in the city. That will probably wind down a bit."
While the worst of it seems to be in the past, Fornell doesn't anticipate people will stop volunteering. Stepping up to help in the community around this time of year and on the Fourth of July has become part of the culture in a traditionally blue-collar town where people have always known how to roll up their sleeves and get things done.
"It absolutely is part of the culture here and they're still going to volunteer," Fornell said. "We don't want to disband them. What a great bunch of folks. It's a microcosm of what Detroit is and they made it happen."
