FHWorld19: Managing the Recovery of the Detroit Fire Department

Imagine working for a fire department in a city on the verge of bankruptcy. Your gear is old and worn out. The apparatus fleet has a host of issues with a band-aid approach to maintenance. Engine and ladder companies are being shut down. And your local government is dysfunctional and corrupt.

Now imagine this: You and your fellow firefighters never even consider abandoning your department.

During his big room session at Firehouse World in Los Angeles, Detroit Deputy Fire Commissioner Dave Fornell walked attendees through all the steps the Detroit Fire Department has taken to rebuild itself in the wake of the city's 2013 bankruptcy filing.

The most striking takeaway from Fornell's presentation was the fact that not a single Detroit firefighter chose to leave the department during this incredibly tumultuous multi-year period. Many say the fire service's greatest asset is its people, and those personnel played the biggest part in helping turn things around, and not just for the fire department but for the entire Motor City.

"We have some very, very dedicated people," Fornell said. "During the bankruptcy when things were at their absolute worst, all of our firefighters stayed. That really is dedication."

To understand the story of how Detroit went from a booming industrial city filled with steady work and middle class families in the 1950s and 60s to a bankrupt shell of its former self by 2013, you have to understand the trajectory of the auto industry in the last 60 years.

As foreign competitors, particularly those in Japan, entered the American market with more compact, gas-efficient and affordable vehicles starting in the 1970s, Detroit took a major hit as U.S. car manufacturers failed to innovate and remain competitive, leading to plant closures and large cuts in their work forces.

This led to a mass exodus of residents, and with them the tax revenue that would have been used on public services such as the fire department. At its peak in the 1950s, Detroit had a population of around 1.8 million, but by 2013 that number had whittled down to around 700,000.

Fornell said most of the issues the city was facing in the early portion of the decade wound up trickling down into the fire department culture, such as there being no accountability, a non-cooperative administration, and dysfunction throughout the agency. Couple that with some embarrassing media coverage related to a few incidents, and public confidence began to erode in the fire department.

"When you talk about no accountability, I'll give you an example," Fornell said. "An engine company had totaled their rig making an illegal U-turn, and nothing disciplinary happened to the driver, nothing happened to the officer."

The city's landscape included a frightening fuel load of 80,000 vacant structures, including 40,000 abandoned and dangerous dwellings, but crews continued doing the job with aging and minimal resources amid rampant arson fires in crumbling neighborhoods.

Drastic cuts in service were implemented during a budget crisis that included the closing of 10 engine companies and four ladder companies, as well as the "browning out" of other companies on a daily basis.

In July 2013, the city filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy with a debt that was estimated at between $18 and $20 billion. This came after an emergency declaration in March of that year, which led to the governor appointing an emergency manager who took over the city's finances.

An independent report on the fire department listed a host of issues that needed to be addressed, including a lack of focus on safety, aging stations, poor asset management, outdated technology, no planned replacement program for apparatus, and a lack of infrastructure.

"When an engine seized on a pumper, they'd just tow it in and change the oil," Fornell said.

All of these issues led to the ISO rating of the department being dropped from a 2 to a 4.

Through various cuts, adjustments, bargaining and financial help from the state, the city was able to exit bankruptcy 17 months after the filing, and with this came a new budget and a focus on repairing the fire department under the new leadership of Mayor Mike Duggan and Fire Commissioner Eric Jones.

Money to upgrade the department's fleet and purchase new equipment was included in the new city budget, and so far around $24 million has been spent on new vehicles, which led to several engine companies being re-opened. There were also 850 new sets of turnout gear purchased in December 2016.

The city management is also playing a big part with an average of 10,000 vacant building being torn down per year.

"Reducing the fire load is really helping us," Fornell said.

This development, along with the return of a more robust response with a modern fleet, has had an incredible impact. The city has also made great strides in expanding its investigative unit, while city government implemented harsher penalties for arson convictions. The result has been a 42 percent drop in structure fires since 2014 and the department's ISO rating being bumped back up to a 2.

People and businesses are returning and beginning to invest again in Detroit.

"We're not fully there yet, but Detroit is turning it around," Fornell said. "When you hear stories about, 'Oh, poor Detroit' and this and that, I've gotta tell you. It's not 'poor Detroit' anymore. No one fights a fire by themself. It takes a dedicated team, and we've got a great one."