Detroit budget proposal would cut $52 million from police, fire

[davewindsor]

"Regardless, that still does not show that Troy's volunteer model would not work in Detroit. "

The stats may say that Troy had a double-digit number of "structure" fires. If you dig into those numbers, I can guarantee that you'll find that most of those are minor in nature and are nothing like the intensity or scale of what you see in Detroit. When was the last time you heard of multiple homes engulfed in fire in Troy? Never because Troy never sees the kind of structure fires that happen in Detroit.

As far as the volunteer model, what makes you think it can scale up to a city the size of Detroit? Can you name one other city Detroit's size that operates that way? Using your logic, Detroit doesn't need the level of bus service provided because Troy gets away with much less transit than Detroit. Troy is "successful" and Detroit is not, therefore follow the Troy model. There's a reason that major urban cities don't rely on a volunteer model. It's not feasible, it's not practical and it would lead to many more deaths and injuries among the civilian population and fire department personnel.

If you're challenging the validity of the structure fires Troy uses in their statistics, you have to show the proof. You haven't shown any. You've only offered an opinion. Are you the Chief of the Fire Marshal's office for the State of Michigan who is qualified to offer such an opinion? If not, you need to back it up with facts, not your opinions.

Comparing bus service to fire departments is like comparing apples and oranges. I'm not even going to warrant it with a further response because it's not relevant. We are talking about the fire department, not bus service. If you're going to debate the issues, use relevant facts like other fire departments in metro or don't bother.

[Wesley Mouch]

If you're challenging the validity of the structure fires Troy uses in their statistics, you have to show the proof. You haven't shown any. You've only offered an opinion. Are you the Chief of the Fire Marshal's office for the State of Michigan who is qualified to offer such an opinion? If not, you need to back it up with facts, not your opinions.

Comparing bus service to fire departments is like comparing apples and oranges. I'm not even going to warrant it with a further response because it's not relevant. We are talking about the fire department, not bus service. If you're going to debate the issues, use relevant facts like other fire departments in metro or don't bother.

I don't think its at all fair to limit opinion issuing to certified authorities. One doesn't have to be a specialist to enter a discussion on general ideas.

That said, Troy being a volunteer department is fascinating. While Troy may not have nearly the volume of 'business' that DFD has, they are one of the few suburbs who have true 'high rise' buildings. I believe the fire codes for high-rise start around 10 stories. To have a building that tall, there's an entirely different set of code requirements for the buildings, and an entirely different set of requirements for the local fire department.

[[btw, I'm not a Fire Chief, but I do have multiple years of high-rise building management experience, and have memberships in several building trade associations.)