DTE's (Detroit Edison) negligence & parasitism & budget cuts caused the severe fires in Detroit

[Hannah Bell]

For Detroit firefighters, a rash of fires caused by downed power lines was not only predictable; it was predicted. Every time there are high winds, they witness the results of the company’s profit-driven negligence.

One firefighter with 15 years of service told the WSWS that many firemen were unable to respond to the neighborhood fires on Tuesday because they were preoccupied with securing downed power lines. His commanding officer estimated that 15 of the 58 fire companies activated to deal with Tuesday’s fires were “sitting on DTE’s lines.” These included Initial Response units, which could have put out the fires before they spread. The first 15 minutes of a fire is the most crucial time, he said.

“DTE is fully responsible for the maintenance of the lines and we’re doing them a favor to watch them,” the firefighter told the WSWS. “We do it because these high voltage lines are a danger to the public. But we have to wait and wait until a DTE crew comes out to repair a line. On Tuesday evening we were spread out watching downed lines, and that kept us from responding to the fires in time.”

Under normal circumstances, he explained, the Fire Department calls DTE if there is a downed or arcing power line while roping off the area with caution tape and waiting until a DTE crew shows up. “Sometimes we wait two hours until we are relieved by another fire truck. Before we had the relief system, I remember sitting on a line all day and all night, maybe 14-16 hours waiting for DTE to show up. “Even if it’s a downed line on a house; no matter how dangerous it is, DTE does not respond as if it is a priority, like ‘we have to come out right now.’ If DTE had come and cut the wire that was lying on the garage on the east side Tuesday the fire wouldn’t have started.”

The firefighter also said that DTE failed to carry out proper maintenance to trim overgrowth and tree limbs from its power lines. “In better-off neighborhoods, like the one I live in, DTE trims the tree branches away from the power lines. In the not so well-to-do neighborhoods, they are not trimmed.”

The multimillionaire mayor has good reason to protect DTE. He sat on the company’s board of directors for 20 years, from 1985 to 2005, and his inaugural committee was co-chaired by DTE CEO Anthony Earley and his wife. Several of Bing’s staffers are former long-time DTE executives. The administration’s efforts to shut down whole sections of the city correspond with the interests of DTE, which no longer wants to maintain service where profit margins are thin.

The mayor lost his composure and attempted to shut down the press conference when a WSWS reporter asked how he could be qualified to judge DTE given his long and close ties to the company.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/sep2010/dfir-s10.shtml

[Sherman A1]

1. Had the same here in St. Louis a few years ago

We had a bad storm roll through the area and as Ameren UE had cut back on their tree trimming budget for several years, the results were predictable. Many parts of the Metro area were out of power for days (4 for myself). That was in the Summer, another storm in November did the same, followed by another in January.

The good news of course is that the utility was able to get several major rate increases through our "Public Service" Commission since that time, so we all feel better....... :sarcasm:

One would note that the CEO's salary didn't seem to suffer at all.