Burn Page #2

Most firemen

are social creatures,

we like to hang out,

we like to enjoy life.

A lot of times people

compare being a fireman

to being a member of a social club.

They might be onto something.

Brendan Milewski,

who was a trial man here,

he was probably the

youngest guy to be here,

come 20-years-old, or 18-years-old.

Nineteen, something

like that, he come on, yeah.

Fresh-faced kid.

I don't think he ever made a

bed himself when he got here.

My buddy, Doogie.

Silly picture of us back in

probably 2000 at HarleyFest.

I got on the job

when I was 20-years-old.

After 11 years, I was

content, I was happy.

It was August, I'd been off

for like seven or nine days.

I had a nice stretch of

days off, so I was excited

to go back to work, see the guys.

I got there a little

after seven o'clock.

And before I could come in and say

hello, and see what we had going

on for that day, the alert went

off and we got the run.

Once we got rolling,

and turned down Dickerson,

and saw this huge towering

column of smoke,

you knew it was just

not the way you wanted

to start your Friday, the 13th.

I mean, I'm no Nostradamus

or anything,

but I just had a bad feeling.

Soon as I saw it, I

just had a bad feeling.

Me and a couple other

guys were ventilating,

we were taking the plywood off

all the second story windows

so the water tower could get

water in through the second floor.

The bricks up there looked a little

suspect, and as we were working,

I remember hearing somebody shout.

The bricks in front of me, the facade

of the building were

cascading like a waterfall.

I mean, I saw it coming

and I made a run for it.

Chief 6 to

Central, send EMSes immediately,

we've had a building

collapse, fireman down.

I saw him running and

he was less than ten feet from me

when the wall caught him,

I could see his face.

Central, this is Engine 30,

Multiple EMS, multiple firemen down.

Hm, I can

still see it... plain.

And I went to go push

myself up off the concrete,

do a push-up and slide my knees

in and walk away, and when I did

that push-up, the only thing

that moved were my shoulders.

Central, we need everybody here,

we've got freaking firemen

down, the roof has collapsed,

we need everybody here now!

They were hurt pretty bad,

they were buried in the bricks.

I think it was about four minutes,

we had them all out on backboards.

Called for a second alarm instantly.

Chief 6 to Central,

give me a second alarm.

Stop!

F***in' brake, goddammit!

I was angry.

I was pissed off that

this had happened.

I remember there was

chaos going on around me,

but just Inside I was so calm.

One of the things that I wanted

to do afterwards was make sure

we washed all of the blood

out of the street, there was

so much blood in the street.

Things could have been

done differently on August 13th

that wouldn't have resulted in this.

We could have did a complete surround

and drown defensive operation,

that would change things

dramatically.

I'd still be walking

if we had done that.

There's definitely things that

could have been done differently.

When we go into to

houses, it's a whole 'nother thing

from what you see on the news from

us standing outside with a hose.

Close your eyes,

feel heat all around you.

Do not have no clue as to

where you going, and then say,

"Okay, I got to fight this."

That's fear.

There's some buildings that

you come out of, and you realize

that the structure is

designed to kill firemen.

We've had stairways collapse.

We've had bathtubs fall

from the second floor

onto the first floor,

hit the guys below.

People have weights in

their rooms, they have waterbeds

in their rooms, they have weapons,

there could be anything up there.

We have a record amount

of guys injured right now

and we have had for the last

four or five years.

I don't know if I'm more

afraid of death or crippling injury.

Out of 17 years, I've been

in the hospital 15 of those years.

I had a second floor bathtub

fall on top of me, a concussion,

partially dislocated my

hips, messed my back up.

An air-conditioning unit from

the roof, collapsed through the roof,

took my helmet and my mask with it.

You just never really

know what you're walking into.

Until you put your life up

as collateral for another life,

you don't know what

life-saving is about.

It's just a miracle

that more guys aren't hurt

or killed on this job.

Middle of the night last

night our bell system stopped working

to notify us that we're

getting a run.

So it's a holiday, and we

figured we'd take a stab

at fixing it ourselves.

We haven't resorted

to the pots and pans

like we used to do in the old days.

Cross your fingers and hope

for a bell.

Yeah! Whoo!

We'll probably get taken down

on charges for doing this.

Well, no one saw us do it.

Yeah, the biggest challenge

about being a Captain here is you

want to take care of the guys,

you want to take care of the rig, you

want to take care of your building,

and you look around here,

you got broken windows

that you've been trying to

get repaired for four years.

You have rigs that are leaking,

and nobody has the parts to fix.

You know, you go down

to the repair shop

for your fire coat, and

they don't have any.

Gloves, boots.

They were leaking.

It's ripped right in the top

here, big chunk out of 'em...

rubber, you could see the steal,

figured I'd duct tape it up,

and it seems like it's

working, right?

Squad 6 leaks oil

like you wouldn't believe.

You can see it down here.

You know? I mean,

these rigs are held together

with bubble gum and tape.

What was it?

I think it was

the airbag or inner tire.

We're wearing this stuff out.

You know, just like the rigs,

you know, our stuff is worn out,

because we're actually

doing something,

we're working all the time, so.

You know, that's just

something that comes with the job.

It's been this way for so long,

and you just get frustrated.

You look at the big picture,

and there's just nothing

you can do about it.

Flames ripped

through an open warehouse,

destroying several businesses inside.

Now, firefighters explain

why they couldn't seem

to get a hand on that fire.

Well, we get there

without the tools we need.

There's not much we can do.

Firefighters doing all

they can, but stretched to the limit.

It looks like a war zone,

the whole block is just

gone, it's just gone.

When it comes

to public safety in Detroit,

At least five

of the City's 21 rigs were

out of commission in

the past few days.

Nothing but problems.

It's dangerous, it's scary

and one of these days,

we're going to get trapped.

It's gonna take

somebody getting killed.

Dozens of homes up in

flames, all in a matter of hours,

downed power lines, strong winds,

and at least one suspected arsonist

stretched Detroit's Fire Department

like never before.

Eighty-five blazes in

total with the entire fire department

on the streets, battling the flames.

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