Detroit Fire Departments Make Do With Soda Can Alarms

It's no secret that the city of Detroit has been suffering through financial tough times for decades with ongoing budget cuts and debt. It's the largest city in the United States to ever declare bankruptcy, with legal proceedings still continuing.

Those affected by those cuts include city service-workers such as the Detroit Fire Department firefighters, who have been using unusual, creative, low-tech practices to deal with the lack of resources and technology. In fact, things have gotten so bad that unlike most modern fire stations across America, which have computerized alert systems for emergencies, many Detroit stations use soda cans filled with metal screws, or sometimes pocket change, and fax machines. When an emergency call comes in, an antiquated fax expels a sheet of paper, knocking a cola can off the top of the machine — that's it, that's all. And it's strangely efficient.

Now this isn't how all the stations operate, but it's not far off. Some stations have rigged their fax machines to wiring connected to standard firehouse bells.

Although these ideas are clever, they aren't ideal. And the low-tech alarm system isn't the only problem the department faces. Response times are also affected because of older and poorly maintained service vehicles, which results in a less-than-stellar average response time of seven minutes to structure fires. Emergency medical services are also under distress, with an average response time of 15 minutes.

So what's being done about the low-tech challenges the fire department faces? The "pop can system" was brought up in court before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven W. Rhodes as evidence that the city needs to spend more money to upgrade the tools and technology at its fire stations. But until Judge Rhodes has a plan of action in place to get the city out of the financial gutter, it looks like the Detroit Fire Department will continue shopping at Costco and Home Depot for soda and screws. Scrounging up a little change might be tough, though.