Detroit mayor calls fires 'natural disaster'

AP/YahooNews ^ | 9/8/10 | JEFF KAROUB and COREY WILLIAMS

[Kartographer]

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing has defended the fire department for its response to what he described as "a natural disaster" after wind-whipped flames destroyed dozens of homes across the city.

Asked at a news conference Wednesday whether the department was adequately staffed, Bing said it was important to point out that nobody was killed.

Fire Commissioner James Mack says the department is budgeted for about 500 firefighters, about 20 fewer positions than last year. He says the 236 on duty Tuesday is typical.

Eight of the 85 fires Tuesday were related to downed power wires, two were arson. Mack says that on any given day, there are usually 35 fires in the city.

[Kartographer]

Why don't he just call it what it is 'Urban Renewal'!

[Da Coyote]

Under the Obamaloon, Detroit today, the rest of us tomorrow.

[DManA]

Detroit fire department motto - “We’ve never lost a basement”

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Detroit is an unnatural disaster! Flames should have a cleansing effect.

[absolootezer0]

its a bit early this year. we usually don’t see this kind of improvement in detroit til the end of october.

[pgkdan]

What I want to know is why the FD bothered to put it out!

[Drill Thrawl]

Detroit is an unnatural disaster!

I disagree. Detroit is the natural consequence of decades of mob\union\EMOcrat rule.

[Roccus]

Where these occupied or abandoned structures...the article didn’t say.

[raybbr]

Any word on whether they had to get union approval to go to the fire?

[Kartographer]

“Where these occupied or abandoned structures...the article didn’t say.”

Both is what I read.

[WOBBLY BOB]

Democraps are a natural disaster.

[crosshairs]

Does he mean that the perpetrators are just doing what comes naturally?

[mlizzy]

Depressing! One Roll of Film in Detroit Michigan, February 25, 2008.

[Pollster1]

That makes sense. I’d call Obama a natural disaster. Having looked at his policies, it’s natural that his regime would be a disaster.

[combat_boots]

Ummmmm. One word: practice.

[Desron13]

They need to evacuate the last few remaining sad socialist remnants of this once great American city and let it slip gracefully back into the wilderness from whence it came. The refugees can be forced to move to Chicago where they can complete the same process for that Marxist den of thuggery as well. Sigh...

[Blue Jays]

Detroit needs the entire city footprint completely reconfigured and reduced.
Long-abandoned homes and collapsed factories need to be bulldozed and land returned to open fields or otherwise replanted.
That entire liberal cesspool cannot be adequately serviced as it stands now.

[combat_boots]

[Blue Jays]

We were posting at nearly the same time!

[BenLurkin]

INCOMPETENCE