Records left in the parking lot (Photo: Motor City Muckraker)
Records scattered outside.
(Photo: Motor City Muckraker)
The Detroit Fire Department is looking into a suspected arson last week of a former five-story training center at W. Warren and Lawton that contained thousands of records including arson evidence, medical records, social security nuymber of firefighters, historic data and names, addresses and phone numbers of victims and witnesses, Steve Neavling of Motor City Muckraker reports. The structure is still standing.
The city moved to a new training center in 2015 and left the sensitive records behind. Neavling writes:
Mayor Duggan’s administration was warned more than a year ago that the former training academy at W. Warren and Lawton was open to trespass, and scavengers were stealing scrap metal. Scattered throughout the building were mounds of records containing arson evidence, confidential medical information, the social security numbers of firefighters, historic data and the addresses, names and phone numbers of victims and witnesses.
Some of the records included the social security numbers of firefighters. Motor City Muckraker blacked out the numbrs. Despite numerous warnings that the records and arson evidence were vulnerable to theft or destruction, city officials failed to secure the building.
On Thursday, just one week after Motor City Muckraker revealed the building was still open to trespassers, an arsonist set fire to records on several floors. One firefighter was injured in the blaze. At some point in the past year, the Detroit Building Authority took over the abandoned building.
The building on Saturday was still open for trespassers and some damanged records were in the parking lot.
After Neavling posted the story, he reports that the Detroit Fire Department said the city will secure the building Monday and will ensure there are no more sensitive or useful records.
Ironically, the discovery comes as the Detroit police are trying to get the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office to charge Mike Nevin, the Detroit Fire Fighters Association president accused of disseminating “sensitive information to the public.”
Nevin has accused the city of going after him because he's a whistleblower.
