A spike in suspicious fires adds to the strain.
Detroit fire crews, often stretched thin as they chase multiple alarms each shift, don't necessarily care for camera-carrying onlookers at emergency scenes.
A spike in suspicious fires adds to the strain.
Conflicts surface regularly, Steve Neavling recounts at his Motor City Muckraker news site:
Tensions are growing between Detroit’s fatigued firefighters and an increasing number of photographers and videographers who are documenting the fires.
In the past two months, photographers have been briefly detained, accused of arson, cursed at by firefighters and intentionally sprayed with water. A law enforcement official also smashed a photographer’s phone in late May. . . .
In late May, a fire chief ordered firefighters to hose down a drone operated by Alex Haggart, a videographer and fire academy graduate. . . . Video shows the drone was nowhere near the fire and was landing when the hose was turned on the $1,000 drone.
"Some of them don’t want us here, and they let us know about it,” Haggart is quoted as saying.
Commissioner Eric Jones is looking into photographers' complaints.
A spike in suspicious fires -- such as 17 east-side house fires Monday night and early Tuesday -- adds to the strain.
After numerous fires broke out on the city’s east side this morning, a Lenox Township firefighter and reputable photographer was briefly detained and questioned about setting blazes. The arson chief later said the photographer was not a suspect. . . .
Firefighters told us some photographers get in the way and seem elated to watch a house burn.
“They’re adrenaline junkies looking for a fix,” a firefighter told me, asking not to be identified because he doesn’t have authority to speak to the media. “They complain when there aren’t enough fires. This is entertainment for them. It’s sick.”
Fire Commissioner Eric Jones tells Neavling he'll remind supervisors and firefighters that civilians can legally record fires if they're outside areas called hot zones.
“I am issuing a Commissioner’s Bulletin regarding the 1st amendment and ‘Hot Zone’ issues,” Commissioner Jones said in an e-mail to us today.