Hell Night

[SamsonFCDES]

I was talking to a fellow from Cleveland Ohio today. He mentioned that Hell Night was appraoching (Hallowene) and that the FD would be busy one again. I asked him what the hell he was talking about and he explained that on Hallowene there is usualy a very large amount of arason fires. Abandoned buildings are a favorite. Many are set on fire during "Hell Night" often overwhealming fire responce.

It seems that it is not only wako arsonists, but there are also a lot of insurace policies that spontaneously combust. The money fires use the chaos of the night to try and get away with some high temperature urban renuel.

So, is this a phenominon in anybody elese area?

[12TruckIrons]

Its real as can be just ask some of the brothers from Detroit.

[SamsonFCDES]

Originally posted by 12TruckIrons
Its real as can be just ask some of the brothers from Detroit.

I just has a BS session with a Detroit FD member that was out here in MT hunting last week. We didnt talk about Hell Night, but he did mention that there are a lot of arson fires in the growing number of abandoned buildings.

[33motor]

Detroit has had "hell night" for some time now. That's the only FD I have ever heard call it that though, or that I have heard had the problem. It has been a local issue there for a long time. I guess there is always a chance that word has spread, and that others might do the same.

[AFD368]

Detroit's Hell Night

Yes, Detroit has been extremely busy in the past on Hell Night.
If you look back in the archives of Firehouse magazine, you will find articles on the Detroit Fire Department and this very busy night.

Correct me if I am wrong here, (anybody), but I do believe that Detroit's responses on Hell Night has diminished over the past few years. I know that years ago, it was nothing for them to respond to 600 alarms or so on Hell Night.

[33motor]

AFD368,

I think you're right about that. It seems like they have slowed down some in rescent years. I guess they never know what year might be another bad one. Lets hope they have a slow time this year.

[ffexpCP]

in the Detroit area...

I have never heard of ‘Hell Night’ before. I know it as ‘Devil’s Night.’ This news article is old, but it gives the history of the problems and explains some of the steps taken to minimize the problems.

http://www.freep.com/news/locway/qangel28.htm

Here's a more recent news story.

http://www.clickondetroit.com/commun...10/detail.html

[Weruj1]

Back in the early 90's it was nothgin for them to have working fires with no one to respond, or they would be fought by single engine companies. The City realized the problem and have since turned to the citizens and formed blockwatches and curfews to curb the fires, it has worked well. As someone else posted FH mag has doen a couple of stories about it.

[12TruckIrons]

I was talking to FireLt1951 the other day, to those of you who dont know he is a Lt. on one of Detroits Rescues. According to him the city pays all dept.s witht he exception of fire anyway, to basicly just ride around the city all night to monitor things. So as the saying goes "things aint how they used to be"

[AFD368]

Hell Night

As someone else has mentioned, I do believe that in Detroit it is known as "Devil's Night".

Also, (again, someone (anybody) correct me if I am wrong here) I think there is someplace in New Jersey that has had an increase of "Hell Night" fires. The same situation as in Detroit, with numerous vacant buildings being torched on Halloween.

[NewsReporter]

I grew up in Detroit (6 Mile and St. Joseph Campau), and "Devil's Night" is crazy - pipe bombs, fires, sometimes riots, (as always) murders - God bless the PD and FD folks on duty that night.

[FireCapt1951retired]

OK, here's the low down. Starting back in 1984 the Devil's Night horror began. That 3 day period we ran over 850 dwelling and commercial fires. We were going down the street, knocking down as much fire as possible, picking up and moving on to the next fire. You could look up and see fire on almost every block around you. This continued for the complete 72 hours, night and day. The Mayor had already closed 21 fire companies and taken us down to 3 on an engine and 3 on a truck with 4 on the squad.

During the period from 1985 until around 1993 we averaged around 500 dwelling and commercial fires during that 3 day period (this doesn't even cover trash and vehicle fires). After 1993 or 1994 the city began asking for volunteers and paying overtime to every department in the city (except fire) to drive around looking for fires. They even had the trash collectors and Police carrying hoses to hook up to hydrants and also carrying extinguishers. They still chose to keep low staffing levels low.

To make a long story short for around 10 years they literally kicked our as#es during those 3 days. Even with the city tearing down vacants, the vandals decided to start on occupied dwellings and commercials. As of this writing, the Devil's Night problem has subsided greatly. We actually have less fires on these 3 days than on an average day (45-65 dwelling and commercial fires a day) now.

After 1995 they began calling it Angel's Night because of all the negative press the city recieved during this period. I may be off by a year on each of these but then again my memory isn't what it used to be

[CFD Hazards]

The city in New Jersey was Camden, which is located just across the river from Philadelphia. There it was called "Mischief Night". It began around 1991 and has become nothing. Much like Detroit, neighborhood organizations began patrolling the streets and the fires have dwindled. Last year they only had one fire.

[erics99]

Originally posted by FireLt1951
OK, here's the low down. Starting back in 1984 the Devil's Night horror began. That 3 day period we ran over 850 dwelling and commercial fires. We were going down the street, knocking down as much fire as possible, picking up and moving on to the next fire. You could look up and see fire on almost every block around you. This continued for the complete 72 hours, night and day. The Mayor had already closed 21 fire companies and taken us down to 3 on an engine and 3 on a truck with 4 on the squad.

During the period from 1985 until around 1993 we averaged around 500 dwelling and commercial fires during that 3 day period (this doesn't even cover trash and vehicle fires). After 1993 or 1994 the city began asking for volunteers and paying overtime to every department in the city (except fire) to drive around looking for fires. They even had the trash collectors and Police carrying hoses to hook up to hydrants and also carrying extinguishers. They still chose to keep low staffing levels low.

To make a long story short for around 10 years they literally kicked our as#es during those 3 days. Even with the city tearing down vacants, the vandals decided to start on occupied dwellings and commercials. As of this writing, the Devil's Night problem has subsided greatly. We actually have less fires on these 3 days than on an average day (45-65 dwelling and commercial fires a day) now.

After 1995 they began calling it Angel's Night because of all the negative press the city recieved during this period. I may be off by a year on each of these but then again my memory isn't what it used to be

Lt., could you let us know how Devils Night goes this year? I'd be interested to hear it, thanks.

[mcaldwell]

Traditionally, everywhere I have lived/worked, Hell's night or Devil's night has been the night BEFORE Halloween, and is marked with lots of general mischief and a few fires.

A few years back it was the worst with a group of teenagers tossing homemade malatovs at the local hydro substation. Last year was thankfully very quiet.