Posted on 09/07/2014 2:10:22 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
Detroit's Under-Funded Fire Departments Use a Soda Can For a Fire Alarm
Where absent money leaves gaps, ingenuity fills in. Nowhere is that more true than in Detroit's fire departments, where, as Detroit Free Press reporter Tresa Baldas shows us, a soda can full of jangling coins and screws alerts the Motor City's long-suffering heroes when there's an emergency.
The system is brilliantly simple: A soda can full of rattling metal is balanced on top of the fire department's printer at the end of the tray. When the printer spits out an emergency alert, the paper knocks over the can. The crash of the can hitting the floor tells firefighters that it's time to suit up.
As Baldas reports, some departments get even more creative, setting up systems where the printout knocks over a weight that flips the switch on a doorbell ringer. Others replace the rattling can with a length of pipe, making a clanging wind-chime noise when the printout knocks it to the floor.
Detroit's 38 firehouses have been using these improvised alarms for years, a fact made public during testimony this week at the city's bankruptcy trial. None of the city's fire departments have the modern alarm systems seen in most American firehouses, where a series of tones and an automated voice tell firefighters the nature of the alarm.
"It sounds unbelievable, but it's truly what the guys have been doing and dealing with for a long, long time," Detroit Deputy Fire Commissioner John Berlin told the Detroit Free Press. "We're in desperate need. We're probably 30 years behind."
(Excerpt) Read more at gizmodo.com ...
This is the natural end result of decades of liberal Democrat party domination over city politics, financing and urban policies ...
It’s just plain sad.
What do you think the average salary and bennies (including pension accrual) for a full time Detriot Firefighter is - maybe 100 grand a year? More?
I have my own businesses. When my business needs something I pay for it out of pocket.
These guys can chip in a few bucks for necessary supplies rather than going crying to the taxpayer gain.
“We’re in desperate need. We’re probably 30 years behind.”
If they are only 30 years behind they are far more advanced than any other part of Detroit City Government. In fact primitive tribe in the most backward parts of the world are far more advanced than City of Detroit Employees.
“It’s just plain sad.”
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Why? They are on duty — if they can’t have a “duty officer” sit near enough to the printer to hear it “go off”, they can use that Rube Goldberg mechanism FOR THEIR CONVENIENCE (e.g., so they can watch movies or work out or whatever else they are doing).
I know this sounds mean, but...let it burn, the whole city, down.As an example of what happens when liberal, leftist, socialist union power takes over and totally corrupts a city, right into the ground. Totally. Pathetic. Coming to a blue city near you, soon.
<>”We’re probably 30 years behind.”<>
Detroit represents civilization in reverse gear. How many other cities are following it? How many states?
I look forward to the day when Imperial Washington DC and its surrounding wealthy counties are every bit as prosperous as the city of my birth, Detroit.
Fire some managers and buy some hardware.
See? It's easy.
But no.... every year, budgets and headcount have to go up.
No sale.
Cut the budget 30% to start, and then keep working away at it until they figure it out.
/johnny
Good ol’ American ingenuity.
True. The budget can be cut some more, if they can adapt so well.
/johnny
You need a press to report on the corrupt, forgotten city. It’ll take archeologists to figure this one out. Of course, I’m optimistic that someone will reinvent the poor city - perhaps not in my lifetime, though.
Yep … good ole BIG CITY ingenuity
The money is just spent in useless ways so there is never money for the things that are needed.
It is like buying new underwear every week and complaining that you have to darn your socks because of the holes.
An example of the power of liberals!
My daughter in law’s gg grandfather was a Detroit fireman at the turn of the last century. The pictures of the firehouse and the firemen are amazing, everything immaculately maintained. You could eat off the floor.
In Detroit there are two fire departments. One that delivers the fire and the other one for putting them out.
Long before tone alert, there was this system for notification of stations called the telephone. Telco provided a leased line that was a direct connection. The back-up (rarely used) was the station’s pay phone.
Must have worked, the cities are still there...
Yeah … now look at the photo (above) with the printer and soda can rigged up as an alarm. The unfinished walls in this Detroit firehouse look like something from shoddy shack in a third world country.
Ooops, my bad … it’s Detroit … it’s already a third world city.
Looks like a nuclear bomb hit it.
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