Ready For Angel's Night
Volunteers are hitting the streets to support Detroit's Angel's Night anti-arson campaign.
City officials are urging Detroit residents to be vigilant about monitoring their neighborhoods during annual Angels' Night anti-arson campaign. This year, as many as 50,000 people are expected to take part all three nights of the Halloween weekend. A group of Detroit Firefighters, Detroit Police, Michigan State Police, ATF Agents, and Sheriff's deputies will also be out patrolling and responding to fires.
Detroit Mayor Dave Bing says his administration has a solid plan in place to keep the city safe during the three-day Halloween period, this Friday through Sunday.
"We have to make sure that we're out in the street. We have quite a few — about a thousand — of the oscillating lights that we'll be putting on vehicles. We're geared up from an administration standpoint," he said.
Bing added that the help of Detroit residents makes the difference in winning the fight.
"The real key is volunteerism. We've gotta get people to come out and show their love for the city," Bing told WWJ City Beat Reporter Vickie Thomas.
"I would hope that the crazies don't come out, but in case they do, what we're asking businesses and individual folks in the city to do is to keep their lights on, to watch the vacant homes to make sure that debris is cleaned up around vacant buildings," Bing said.
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Reverend Barry Randolph, of the Church of the Messiah on East Grand Boulevard, is one member of the community that will be taking action against crimes along with a volunteer patrol.
"Because so many people in the community have been victims of a violent crime or have had family members that have been a victim of a violent crime, we're asking them to walk in honor of the person who was the victim of the violent crime," Randolph said.
The city also has a curfew in place to help fight arson. More on this.
About 30,000 people took part last year's effort. Detroit officials report the city had nearly 60 fires during the first two days of the three-day Halloween period known as Angels' Night. The mayor's office says Sunday morning that there were 58 fires as of midnight Saturday, eight more than at that point in 2009.
The city says 119 fires were reported last year over the three-day period, down from 136 in 2008.
More than 800 fires were started in 1984, the height of what then was known as Devils' Night.
The theme of this year's volunteer campaign is "Watch Your Block." For ideas on how you can participate, visit this link. Or, you can call the Angels' Night Volunteer Hotline at (313) 224-4415.
Officials in Flint also are working to prevent fires over the Halloween weekend. Firefighters responded to at least four fires overnight Saturday. Eight fires were reported the night before.
Copyright, 2010. WWJ Newsradio 950, All Rights Reserved. AP contributed to this report.
