Original subtitles

Parnell: I wish my head could forget what my eyes have seen

in 32 years of firefighting.

Interviewer: Why do you do this?

Miller: We love...

I love my job.

It does... it's something with adrenaline

that gets you pumped up (alarm).

And here we go!

Woman: (screams).

Woman: Got to regroup, keep it moving, that's the best I can do.

Craig: That right there times 30 a night, times 30 years,

is how you burn a city down... one at a time.

Man: It was probably the most beautiful city back in the day,

you know, when there was factories everywhere,

there was people spending money around here.

The car industry was booming.

Man: It was much easier to get a job and it was more

of a family atmosphere then.

You didn't have to lock your doors.

Man: I grew up in Detroit.

I've seen the City change from a nice, decent neighborhood

to certain areas that just look like bombs have hit them.

Man: Most of the neighborhoods are blighted, vacant lots.

Next to vacant dwellings.

Parnell: We've got probably one, two, three, four...

six, seven, eight vacants on my block.

Dennis: It kind of hurts me to see the City getting destroyed like this,

I feel like I'm in the burning of Rome sometime.

Man: Population loss, I've watched it go from a city

of one-point-eight million to seven-hundred thousand,

leaves a lot of vacant homes.

Man: The bottom line is everybody that can seems to be fleeing.

Man: I mean, this has been Katrina without the hurricane.

Woman: Our city is crumbling around us.

Man: Imagine two-thirds of the people in your city disappeared,

but they left their houses, their garbage, their furniture.

Doogie: As long as there's people leaving,

as long as there's vacant houses, there's going to be fires,

it's called fire load, there's more things to burn.

Man: The neighborhood of our district is, statistically,

one of the worst places on earth for crime, for poverty.

Man: So they were shooting, too?

Man: Came out right here.

Woman: And the other one was right there.

Man: High murder rate, high infant mortality rate.

Reporter: Police telling me this is not just a murder, but an execution.

Man: Crimes that you never would, in a million years,

thought would happen in your neighborhood.

Woman: In the City of Detroit last year alone,

we had over 30,000 actual fire calls.

I mean, we're in trouble, we need help.

Parnell: This don't have nothing to do with the City,

this is must my own personal edge (alarm).

My name is David Parnell, I'm a FEO,

Field Engine Operator, for Engine Company 50.

Craig: Dave Parnell and I were hired about the same time,

1977, great guy, solid guy.

You feel safe when he's behind the wheel.

He'll get you water within 60 seconds of being on the fire drop.

Parnell:That's my part.

That's what I do.

Craig:The soul, if you will, of the firehouse.

He's pretty well loved and respected by everybody here.

Chris: Dave is old (laughs).

He has to retire.

Man: He's like Papa Bear.

He's in there, we catch him nodding off in there a little bit.

Man: He's watching an old Western, black and white.

It's okay, he's earned it.

Miller: Sometimes, I just need a little Parnell.

Parnell: What is a man's worth

that doesn't make the world a better place?

What's a gang besides a family looking for a home?

Think about it.

Jeff: My favorite one is when he says,

"I wish my mind could forget what my eyes have seen..."

Parnell: Could forget what my eyes have seen.

Miller: We call it bullshit (laughter).

Craig: Yeah!

(laughter).

Man: But it is comforting.

Man: It is totally comforting.

Man: Well, never get that from Dan.

Dave: Come on Dave, I need some bullshit.

Man: You're going to get some bullshit from Parnell.

Parnell: You know, I've been here so long, you know,

you feel like a fixture, thirty-three years.

Yeah, thirty-three years of firefighting,

I have eight months left, and then I'll retire, I'll be 60.

Interviewer: Are you ready to go?

Parnell: Absolutely... no, not at all.

This is my neighborhood, this is where I live,

this is where I fight my fires.

You used to could walk in this neighborhood.

Well, now, you're pretty much afraid to walk to the corner.

This is where some

of the firefighters lived and grew up, right here.

And now look at it, that was a fire job right there,

you can tell by the soot that was in the front of the dwelling.

We've been to that apartment building over there,

at least a half-a-dozen times that I know of.

We actually saved a young man out of this one, 18011,

actually saved a young man

out of that one.

When you look around the City, you look at the burnt-out homes.

That's when you get this attitude, "This is no good."

And I don't understand it, I'm not going to understand it.

If you live in the community in which you work, how do you not do something

for the people that are around you?

You have an opportunity to make change.

Dispatcher: Report of a growing fire...

Man: Ninety-five percent of what I do is arson.

Very rarely do we have a legitimate fire (siren).

Woman:The building's on fire!

We can't get out!

Man: Somebody went in through the back door,

went upstairs, and they lit the place.

Man:You go up stairs you can smell some kind of accelerant or something.

Lewis: I can't picture another city that's like this

where so many of the fires are arson.

It's beyond me why people would want to burn their own city down.

Craig:There's arson for profit.

There's arson for revenge.

And then there's just arson for kicks.

Man: It used to infuriate me that this was going on night after night,

and nobody, nobody seemed to care.

But I mean, we're doing this for the people that are left,

and for the houses are occupied.

You got to be tough.

Man: The exhaustion can be depressing.

Man: To blow off steam, you probably have ten methods

for every individual, you know?

Jeff: We'll clean it.

Man: Whoa!

Tony: Weird pink nursing home.

Man: Nice.

Man: Ohhhh.

Man: Holy cow!

Man: Whoo!

Craig: Yeah, the DFD swagger.

I mean, we're above the law.

Detroit firemen think they can do whatever they want.

Cowboys in a big rodeo (alarm).

Man: We do things a little differently, rigs pull up.

Man: Oh, it's in the basement.

Man: Guys go right in, we advance to the heart of the fire.

Parnell: Other guys are fighting fires, you see water shooting in,

we fight fires, you'll see water shooting out.

Whoa!You got me!

Parnell: Detroit puts the fires out from the inside out.

Plain and simple.

Dennis: When we go on a fire, we're kind of hyped up.

We're like, "Let's go!"

"Ah!" You know, you're tackling this thing like it's some type of dragon.

And we don't really lose too often.

Man: Hot as fucking shit!

Man: We have people that come from across country, around the world

to just watch us fight fire.

Man: Well, I don't know if I should say that,

but we fight fires with balls.

That's (laughs)...

Man: It's the best boys' club in the world!

We get paid to be here.

Miller: I like coming to work., I look forward to it.

I think you'll hear that from most of the guys,

ask anyone in the private sector, and you'll probably hear differently.

Man: This job is fun!

You get to turn the lights on, the siren on,

you get to run through red lights.

Let's

Man: We actually live together 24 hours, since there's a closeness,

the trust factor is there.

Jeff: The busier you are, the more you bond.

We're tight, it's a brotherhood, that's just how we roll.

Man: That's the team that we have, the family that we have,

the trust that we have for one another.

Doogie: 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.

Miller: 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.

Man: Nineteen, something like that, he come on, yeah.

Miller: Fresh-faced kid.

I don't think he ever made a bed himself when he got here.

Jeff: My buddy, Doogie.

Silly picture of us back in probably 2000 at HarleyFest.

Doogie: 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 (sirens).

Doogie: 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.

Dispatcher: Chief 6 to Central, send EMSes immediately,

we've had a building collapse,fireman down.

Lewis: I saw him running and he was less than ten feet from me

when the wall caught him, I could see his face.

Dispatcher: Central, this is Engine 30 (inaudible),

Multiple EMS, multiple firemen down.

Lewis: Hm, I can still see it... plain.

Doogie: 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.

Dispatcher: Central, we need everybody here,

we've got freaking firemen down, the roof has collapsed,

we need everybody here now!

Lewis: 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.

Dispatcher: Chief 6 to Central, give me a second alarm (sirens).

Man: Stop!

Fuckin' brake, goddammit!

Doogie: I was angry.

I was pissed off that this had happened.

I remember there was chaos going on around me,

but just (voice cracks) inside I was so calm.

Lewis: 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.

Doogie: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.

Dennis: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.

Parnell: 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.

Man: There's some buildings that you come out of, and you realize

that the structure is designed to kill firemen.

Man: We've had stairways collapse.

We've had bathtubs fall from the second floor

onto the first floor, hit the guys below.

Man: People have weights in their rooms, they have waterbeds

in their rooms, they have weapons, there could be anything up there.

Man: (yelling).

Man: We have a record amount of guys injured right now

and we have had for the last four or five years (sirens).

Man: I don't know if I'm more afraid of death or crippling injury.

Chris: 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.

Dave: An air-conditioning unit from the roof, collapsed through the roof,

took my helmet and my mask with it.

Man:You just never really know what you're walking into.

Man: Until you put your life up as collateral for another life,

you don't know what life-saving is about.

Man: lt'sjust a miracle that more guys aren't hurt

or killed on this job.

Jeff: 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 (bell rings).

Yeah! Whoo!

We'll probably get taken down on charges for doing this.

Man: Well, no one saw us do it.

Craig: 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.

Man: 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?

(laughs).

Man: Squad 6 leaks oil like you wouldn't believe.

You can see it down here.

You know? (Laughs) I mean, these rigs are held together

with bubble gum and tape (siren).

Man: What was it?

Man: I think it was the airbag or inner tire.

Dennis: 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.

Craig: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.

Reporter: 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.

Man: Well, we get there without the tools we need.

There's not much we can do.

Reporter: Firefighters doing all they can, but stretched to the limit.

Woman: It looks like a war zone,

the whole block is just gone, it's just gone.

Reporter: When it comes to public safety in Detroit,

we're robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Reporter: At least five of the City's 21 rigs were

out of commission in the past few days.

Man: Nothing but problems.

It's dangerous, it's scary and one of these days,

we're going to get trapped.

Man: It's gonna take somebody getting killed.

Reporter: 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.

Reporter: Eighty-five blazes in total with the entire fire department

on the streets, battling the flames.

Man: Oh, what the fuck!

Reporter: The Mayor says, "Enough is enough!"

And he fires the City's Fire Commissioner, and his right-hand man.

Reporter: Tonight a Fox 2 exclusive, answering the call

for help for the men and women of the Detroit Fire Department.

Reporter: Tonight a look at who's now in charge

of some much needed changes.

Reporter: Having worked for 30 years

in the Los Angeles Fire Department,

Donald Austin knows all too well the problems facing Detroit's embattled

fire department and EMS system.

Donald: Show me an organization that says they can't improve,

and I willjoin you in watching that organization become obsolete.

Donald:The leadership has been challenged for a whole bunch

of reasons but I plan on bringing a whole new perspective.

Donald: May I share the table with you ladies?

I'm Don Austin, Don Austin, Don Austin.

Man: Fire commissioner, we need to know who he is, right?

Donald: All right!

Well, here I am... and I'm the fire commissioner that's come again, yeah.

Woman: I saw you on TV when you first came on board, yeah.

Donald: Oh, okay, I'm committed and invested.

So what do you guys want and need from the fire department?

Woman: We don't need any those...

Craig: Our new commissioner's from California,

so we have an LA commissioner, Hollywood, I don't know,

Hollywood commissioner, we just don't know what to expect.

Man: (drums) Honor guard, forward, March!

(band playing)

Craig: In the 30-plus years, how many mayors, how many commissioners,

how many chiefs of the department have there been?

They're going to be gone two or three years from now.

They're one election cycle away from you not seeing them again.

Man: I'd like to welcome everyone

to our Detroit Fireman's Memorial Day service, Ladies and gentlemen,

our newly appointed Executive Fire Commissioner, Donald Austin.

Donald: I'm happy to be here in Detroit,

and want to continue the fine tradition of the men and women

of the Los Angeles Fire Department, correction, I knew I was going

to do that, (laughter) I apologize,

The Detroit Fire Department (band plays Amazing Grace).

Chris: I remember when I told my dad I wanted to be a fireman,

and he said, "Not in this city."

Ten years later, look where I'm at.

Tony: When I was a kid, my father was a fireman, and I always wanted

to be a fireman, he was proud of me when I signed up.

Jeff: Family on the job, it's just rich tradition.

A lot of peoplejust fall into line like that, uncles, brothers, fathers,

sons, can't explain why, it just happens.

Miller: Most of the guys around here,

their dad's ran here at some point.

I've seen stuff my dad wrote in.

Matter of fact, 1979, I think my dad just made Sergeant here.

I was 17 when my father died (clears throat) from cancer,

possibly complications from a fire.

When he was sick, the fire department stepped up.

The camaraderie came into play.

I don't think there was a day that went

by that there wasn't a fire truck in front of my house.

At 17, that had an impact on me.

Chris: Yeah, I guess they say, "Firemen die young."

I plan on not being one of those.

Child: I love you.

Chris: It seems like the guys that stay to 60,

they stay till 60, and boom!

It's like, wow!

That guy just retired!

Good job.

Child:Yeah!

Dave: Jake!

That's the Jakester, you want me to get farther away from you.

Gloria: Mm hm.

Parnell: That's my wife, Gloria.

That's my girlfriend (laughs).

Yeah. Wife, girlfriend, lover, all of the above for the last 35 years.

Yeah, so I've almost gotten to know her a little bit

and she's always dressed me all these years.

You know, I guess I looked okay most of the time, but people look

at me now and they say, "Wow!"

Was Gloria not home when you left?"

(laughs). I met my wife before I was ever out of high school.

I got out the Marine Corp, she said, "You got one date, that's it, buddy."

We've been dating ever since.

She's put up with me for over 30 yea rs,

so it's time to just do what she wants to do.

Originally, we had planned to move to Tennessee,

but it's totally different now, because of her situation.

Yea h, hey, sweetie (kissy sound) Love you.

All right, see you.

Gloria: Scoot!

Parnell: See ya.

She went in for a simple appendectomy,

contracted Guillain-Barre, and they said if it doesn't kill you,

you'll make a full recovery.

I'm waiting for the full recovery.

Miller: This is the empty engine bay at Engine 50's quarters.

They've taken our rig and placed it at Engine 58's quarters,

because both of their rigs, the squad

and the engine are broken down at the shop.

Chris:Yeah, we're at Engine 58's quarters, which is at Lake Point

and Whittier, which is about two miles from 50's quarters.

Detailed here today.

Riding 50's rig.

Man: The next step, what we've heard,

the rumor is that the TAC is going to come to Engine 50's quarters.

The TAC is a small truck with a tank on it,

it's just for transportation purposes only for manpower.

Miller: It'd be nice if we had some kind of a back-up plan

when things break, you know, I suspect there are a lot

of other rigs that are about to break.

Chris: Been lucky so far.

I mean, you got a... you don't want to imagine what could happen,

it's like playing with fire.

Man: Got that?

Dennis: Yeah.

Man: All right.

Man: The whole fucking house is rolling!

Man: Yeah, yeah, it's done.

Woman: Come on!

Man: Yeah, over here.

Man: That's every fucking thing I got!

Man: Move over.

Man: Man, this motherfucker's rolling!

Look at that black-ass smoke!

Man:That's every fucking thing I got!!

Woman: I know... I know.

Woman: It's gonna be okay.

Doogie: Any retiree will tell you that when they come back

to the firehouse, even if it's just for a visit, it's just not the same,

when you're removed from it, life goes on, the firehouse goes on.

Thank you, honey.

Angie:That's Doogie right there in that one.

And this is probably my favorite one right here

with all the ax and all the smoke.

He almost looks like a ghost.

I think it's kind of cool, but it's scary at the same time how kind

of after the fact that something happens.

You know what I mean?

I always thought he was kind of like invincible.

When I see these pictures.

I was 19 when we Brendan met.

I cut Brendan's hair.

Doogie: I was an absolute busy body before this happened.

When I cut loose,I like to cut loose.

Angie: We traveled a lot together.

Cabo San Lucas, in Mexico.

Doogie: Motorcycles.

Angie: Bahamas.

Doogie: Playing hockey.

Angie: Saint Lucia.

Doogie: I've been snowboarding for 23 years.

You know, we'd go up north, get a nice cabin for three/four days

at a time, it was a big deal for us.

Nice job, baby.

To not have that anymore, it really uh... it really sucks.

The neurosurgeon's opinion is that most recovery,

most of what you're going to get back will take a good six

to eighteen months.

That, for me, right now is like that's where my blinders are,

that six to eighteen months.

Therapist: Keep going, keep going, keep going.

Pull yourself up.

Doogie: Hold on.

I got it.

Therapist: Yeah!

I wasn't going to help you (laughs) C'mon, pull, pull, pull, much better.

Doogie: Emotionally, physically, I mean, every day is a battle,

when you wake up, there's that split second between opening your eyes,

and remembering that you're paralyzed.

It's just kind of like... (big sigh), "Alright",

alright, let's get things going."

Therapist: Take deep breaths.

Doogie: It's a rough way to start the day.

Jeff: Took us a while to break Doogie in.

He was just the way we like him, nobody could swear more cutting

in a pipe flashing, this is Doogie's enemy right here (laughs).

It'djust make you laugh, I'd give anything to get him back here.

This isn't the easiest work, but it's what we do, you know,

it pays a few extra bills,

because everybody knows they don't pay you enough

to run into burning buildings.

Craig: The starting salary

of a Detroit Firefighter is right around $30,000 a year.

Miller: I'd leave that wall alone.

Dennis: Same thing?

Man: Same thing, yeah.

Just a little...

Craig: So most firefighters have a second job.

Because that just isn't enough money today to feed your family.

Interviewer: Can we see the seasoning?

That seasoning is...

Miller: "WIC approved."

So I can use my food stamps to buy these

but I didn't, I'm almost eligible.

If my pay goes down 20 percent more, I'll be eligible for food stamps

but I think the Governor's cut food stamps, too.

Jeff: You know,I understand in tough times everybody has

to take a haircut, but I'm bald.

We're all going bald now.

Miller: We're on our way to a union meeting.

A special meeting that was called to discuss a recent contract.

Frank: If they keep on chipping away at the contract like this,

and any improvements we gained over the last 20 years,

what's going to happen is you're going to work till you're dead.

You'll never retire.

Man:Times are tough, and everybody knows it

but they're taking away our pension, it's a tough thing to do.

Man: Twenty-one yea rs on the job.

I've had 11 years that I've had a zero percent pay raise,

no one wants to talk about that.

They feel this country is being run into the ground by the unions,

which is the furthest thing from the truth.

It hurts that we're the scapegoats

for the country's financial problems now.

Dennis: I think that's the political climate we're in right now,

I mean, we know nothing's perfect, but if we didn't have unions,

a lot of people would be in a bad position, even non-union workers.

Craig: So what I don't get is when we became the enemy.

When the firefighters and the police officers and the teachers,

the people that are trying to make a difference,

all of a sudden we're just costing too much,

and there's too much expense out there.

Craig: And now, god, you'd think you'd want to run away in shame,

because, "Oh, you're a public employee, you're a civic employee."

Craig: I hear our new commissioner's coming

to visit us this afternoon, I've read a little bit about him

in the newspaper, I know he's from Detroit originally, unknown quantity,

I'm sure we can all formulate our opinions and jump

to our conclusions, but time will tell.

Donald: I ain't got time to BS.

Somebody didn't do theirjob but we can't be abusing our equipment,

pipe posts come up missing at fires, axes come up missing at fires,

generators come up missing off the trucks.

How does that happen?

If we're bringing good money in the front door, and we're throwing it

out the back door, what sense does that make?

Now you do know that 95 to 96 percent of the budget goes to pay you guys.

Craig: Yes, yeah, we know that.

Donald:That leaves four to five percent left

for everything else, fuel and oil, supplies.

But there's a lot of stuff here that I'm trying to figure

out why is it still broken?

I shake my head at some of the stuff.

I'm waiting for somebody to say, "Smile!"

You're on Candid Camera!"

Shit rolls downhill and the Mayor wants change, we better get back

in charge of our own damn department!

Trust me! I'm going to do what I think is right,

I don't give a shit whether you like me or not 'cause I ain't here

to make friends, I'm here to be your leader.

Dispatcher: Fire 23 service, report a disposition

at 000, at 1245 (inaudible).

Dave: Start getting into warmer days, and then when school lets out,

it just seems like the fire load increases.

Man: A gallon of gas is still cheaper than a movie ticket.

Man: As soon as the weather breaks, come May! June, ba-boom'.!

Man: We was in the back yard, smoke was coming out.

Man: Got a barbecue going, eh?

Woman: Uh huh!

Man: Okay, have a good day, now.

Woman: All right!

You too.

Terrell: Bulldog!

Chris: He said he was burning some rats out of a bush.

And they started them on fire, and they ran into the tree.

That was fucking horrible!

Man: You got my dog out?

Did you get my dog out?!

Chris: You don't have to pay me, sir.

Jeff: Is that a piece of steak?

Miller: I don't think we've been to sleep for more than a few minutes,

I mean, this is typical of a summer night around here.

Man: Watch the wires, guys.

We got wires down.

Jeff: It's really not that hot.

Man: Whoa!

Man: You know what saggin' means?

What it mean?

It means you're looking for a girlfriend!

In prison!

Doogie: It's weird.

The sensation's really weird.

Yeah, your perception is a little off, and your first instinct

when you hit the bottom of anything is to like, put your feet down

and kick yourself back up to the top.

You can't do that, so it's kind of strange.

My line of injury is basically between my nipple

and my belly button, because that's where my sensation stops.

Since I've been here in therapy, I can now consciously flex muscles

and control muscles way below my line of injury.

Things are happening.

I'm starting to gain control

over things I didn't have control over when this happened.

It's relaxation, but at the same time it's freeing your mind

from everything else.

You know, your onlyjob is to, is to float, don't drown.

And it definitely lightens up the stress a little being in the water.

Parnell: You always expect things to be the same.

You always expect things to last longer,

you expect to grow old together, I never expected to bury my wife.

Just figured that I would certainly leave before her.

Well... you know, it didn't work out like that, so.

Miller: Just came out of the funeral for Dave Parnell's wife.

She had a cardiac arrest last Friday.

It was kind of shocking, and incredibly sad.

The last four years, Dave's taken a lot on himself

to help rehabilitate his wife.

Dave's life changed radically that day.

I know his planned retirement was wrapped around his wife.

Parnell: Thirty-five years just wasn't enough, it really wasn't.

She did things like this, she liked colors,

so she would make them different colors.

It's like springtime all the time, that was like her.

Always new, "You know, hey, come here",

let me show you a little something different."

(laughs) Yeah, everybody needs a Gloria in their life, oh, geez, Man!

Donald:We're heading over to our apparatus division,

we have a lot of rigs that are broken down and it was getting

to a critical condition in the field for fire trucks.

Now the Mayor has challenged all of us department heads to come

in on budget, and that's going to be my goal.

Looks like we're over about six million dollars between fire and EMS.

You know, a lot of our budget goes

to repair these rigs that are broken down.

And I don't think the men and women understand the cost

of things, you know?

Just happened?

It's one of those days.

Donald:Wow, so would your assessment be that we tear up a lot

of equipment around here?

Man: My assessment would be that we tear up a lot of equipment.

Donald: We don't even have on the radar buying new equipment.

You know? There's no money for it, unless we...

A lot of things happen here that shouldn't happen.

Everyone probably knows that we parked a truck on a train track.

Reporter: The Detroit Fire Department is still looking

into why a firefighter decided

to park the ladder truck on the tracks and in the path of danger.

Donald: I mean, how do you park on a train track?

An Amtrak train track no less.

When you park a 700,000 dollar truck on a train track,

and it gets taken out, that's 700,000 dollars out of our budget.

We had another vehicle that was driven under an overpass,

and we created a convertible out of it.

The cab alone was 200,000 dollars.

I don't think we hold ourselves accountable like we need to.

Let me ask you this: What should happen?

Man: To the individual?

Donald:Well, you tell me!

Man: That backed up?

Donald: Or the officer?

Man: Or the officer?

Donald: Let's start with the officer first.

Man: (laughs) Well, I'm kind of partial to that, so.

Donald: I feel like I'm in a parallel universe.

Nobody else thinks like this in the world.

And I don't want to get to a point where I accept that as a norm,

because that is not the norm everywhere else.

It shouldn't be the norm.

You know, how they say when you're in Rome, do as the Romans?

I ain't doing as the Romans, I'm changing shit around here.

Excuse my French, but this is pure, unadulterated nonsense!

I don't care how many more stations you badly want open,

or might need to be opened, there is no more money.

What do you do in your own families when there's no more money?

How many of you going to come to work and not get paid in two weeks.

Raise your hands if you come in to work,

and knowing you ain't getting paid.

I'm at tremendous odds with the people in this organization

for the direction that it must go.

Man: Go down to the shop, we're not getting gear,

we're not getting rigs, we're not hiring.

Donald: I ain't got any extra money.

Imagine being in a closet with a hornet's nest.

Man: You can hire now.

Donald:You're going to get stung.

Doogie:This past month was really, really tough.

I wasn't feeling very well the majority of the month,

and it kept me out of therapy.

I hate even saying it, but I still can't take a shower by myself.

I was supposed to work till I was 60, have a big blow-out retirement party,

retire a Chief, and things were going to be lovely.

It wasn't supposed to happen like this.

You know, I still have large dependence on other people.

That's one of the most difficult things with the situation.

It wears on you.

I feel like shit as it is, not being able to go down to therapy

and get exercise and get your blood pumping,

and get that social interaction.

Right now, I'm rounding the corner, on getting the driving thing back.

It'll lighten the stress a whole lot once I'm independent

to where I can drive wherever and whenever, and I'm not relying

on someone fOf transportation.

It's a really big step into making me feel somewhat normal again.

Man: Vacant?

Man: Looks like it.

Man: Hey boys.

If they knock that down, if they do, get out of here.

Man: Come on down!

Man: We're trying.

Voices: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Man: Oh, fuck!

Donald: Big challenge, how do we get rid of this?

Man: (laughter) Vacant structures.

Donald: How?

Seventy percent of our work is going to this stuff,

80,000 vacant structures.

Man: How many does the mayor have slated to tear down this year?

Donald: He wants to tear down 3,000 a year.

Man:That's just a drop in the bucket.

Donald: Of course it is.

This is whooping our behinds.

This is breaking our firefighter's back.

It's increasing overtime, injuring our firefighters, damaging homes next

tO these vacant StTUCTUYES,

making the City look ugly, we're being defeated.

We are so desperate, we got to do something with this number.

You know, I'm almost resigned to the point that until we get rid of this,

as Fred said, we're just "managing misery."

Host: Tonight on "Let it Rip,"

the new Detroit Fire Commissioner has been on thejob

for only three months, and already he's shaking things up.

His controversial plan is to fight some fires

in vacant houses, but not all.

Donald: I'm talking about sometimes let it burn.

Host: He's worked in Los Angeles, but tonight, he's back in the city

of his birth, with a bold new plan to save money, and save lives.

Mr. Commissioner, lay it out for us, how will this work?

Donald: I'm changing our aggressive strategy on these vacant homes.

When there's no one in the home, we need to be more in a defensive mode.

What I don't want is an over-aggressive

non-thinking firefighter.

We are a professional fire department,

and we have to balance the risk versus gain.

There's not a building in the City that's worth losing a firefighter's

life on, particularly if it's vacant.

Man:There's nothing within 100 feet of either side of this.

Let it burn.

Tony, let it go!

Man: I thought we weren't putting it out.

Tony: Chief said put it out.

Man: I think it's absolutely bullshit that somebody would tell us,

who's never been in a fire here in the City of Detroit.

He might have lived here 30 or 40 years ago, but hey, I live here.

I know these neighborhoods or whatever, and you never know

which house has somebody in it.

Bottom line, you never know.

Man: Unfortunately, in all the abandoned buildings,

there's a lot of people that squat in these homes.

Reporter: How long he's been down there?

Man: He's been down here for a week.

He was coming down here to get water, and evidently,

somehow he couldn't get out again.

Man: I mean, I heard somebody yelling, "Help, help, help!"

But from out there it sounded like a little kid.

I got in there and it was a grown man.

Man: Homeless guy, his feet are frostbitten.

Man: I'll call the Commissioner uneducated

about what he's talking about.

For him to be talking about this city,

you have to be here for a while.

You have to see it, and you have to work it.

So what other people consider vacant or abandoned, or living in squalor,

these are people's homes.

Donald: So I'll park so you guys can get

out without banging up my '86 El Camino.

So this is home.

Well, you know, you leave work, you come home, you work.

You know, and because I'm not married and don't have any kids,

it's just always working.

Man, that's when I had a hairline.

Lord have mercy, that was back in my younger days.

And this is the helmet I was wearing when we had a fire

on the eighth floor of the Department of Health Building,

and this was the result of me crawling on my knees,

and I crawled into a partition or something, and I hit it

and I put the dent in the helmet.

So I tell the guys I've been, I've been around.

Craig: My first day as Chief 9.

Man: You officially make it?

Craig: I officially made it.

Man: When?Craig: Today?

Man: Today?Yep.

Man: Congratulations.

Cap or... Chief.

Craig:Thank you.

We are doing our rounds.

We're going to go pick up the mail from Downtown, and then run it

out to each individual fire station.

Craig: Hey, how you doing?

Kids: Hey, everybody (laughter).

Craig: You know what, they're not even here.

Engine 47 is one of the browned-out companies, as they say.

On paper, it's a fire company, but it's closed every day,

so all the men are dispersed.

We've got like five fire companies that are like that.

It's quite a change.

The phones ringing, and the paperwork, the scheduling,

and the manpower, it's a whole different job.

And you're not one of the guys anymore.

All of a sudden, you're the guy saying, "No."

Here it is, the TAC Unit.

Their regular rig is out of service,

they got this as a replacement vehicle.

The pumps work on it, we just are not authorized to turn them on.

Regarding the TAC Unit, are we going to be using that,

are we going to pump with that tonight, or what?

Man:Wejust got in it with the Chief

of the Department about the TAC Unit.

Craig: That's for manpower only.

It is not... orders are to not let anybody stretch with it.

Man: What did they say about us using the pumps, no?

Craig: I called after they went back in service,

I was told they have no record of any changes, status quo.

Man: So we're not allowed to pump.

Craig: That's what I was told.

Beginning to wonder if Detroit doesn't put the "D" in dysfunctional.

Donald: I had ajanitorial staff of one individual.

And we cannot afford to keep him on the payroll,

so we cut him loose, it's budget cuts.

You know, is that something the Commissioner

of the Detroit Fire Department should be doing?

Well, in these times, yes.

Dorian: But, it was like Nala was wrestling in the movie.

Dave: Exactly.

Dorian: I know.

Have you seen "The Lion King?"

(laughter)

Dave: You know what I watched yesterday?

There was no Westerns on yesterday!

Woman: Oh, no!

Dorian: What?

Don't you have the Western Channel?

Dave: Yeah, but that didn't have nothing to do with it.

Man: I spent 24 hours watching...

Dave: That was Direct TV, too.

Dorian: So, no, no, no, so there were no Westerns

on the Western Channel?

Is that what you're saying?

Man: Sometimes they have like shows where they talk about Westerns.

Dorian: Oh.

Parnell: No, it wasn't that.

Man: It wasn't an actual Western.

24 hours of a black-and-white movie.

Parnell: Did I think about moving?

Absolutely.

But I work in my community, I live in my community,

and I go to church in my community.

I do everything within a five-mile radius.

Dorian:What are you going to stay here for?

Parnell:What am I going to leave for?

I'm just...

Dorian: What are you going to leave for?

So you don't get shot!

Parnell: Well, cancel the damn shot,

I don't plan on being shot, baby.

Dorian: Nobody plans on being shot!

That's why they have to be rushed to the hospital.

Woman: Right.

Parnell: I talked to your Uncle Joe about it.

It's going to take me a year to get everything out of this house.

Dorian: As long as you don't plan on being in this home for more

than a year or two, I'm okay with that.

Parnell: Two years max!

Two years max.

Uncle Joe, you know?

Dorian: It was eight months five minutes ago.

Parnell: No, no, no, no.

Well, I guess eventually I'm going to be Downtown somewhere.

I might go to a Johnny Mathis concert if he comes to town, maybe.

Dorian: Really?

Parnell: Memories, she used to like to...

well, we used to like to sit on the balcony, yeah, that was fun.

Dorian: Okay!

Parnell: It won't have the happy ending.

Man: You might be the youngest guy

at the Johnny Mathis concert (laughter).

It'll be you and the guy that takes the tickets.

Nurse: How you doing?

Doogie: (sighs) Okay, how are you?

Nurse: I'm good, okay, you're all set, thanks, you too.

Woman: Hey, Doogie, how's it going?

Doogie: Pleasure to meet you, Steve.

Therapist: You big,jerk.

Doogie: Sorry, had to do it.

Therapist: It's okay!

Nurse: Do you ever have thoughts of hurting or harming yourself?

Doogie: No.

Nurse: Are you on any anticonvulsants, tranquilizers,

psychotropics or hypnotics?

Doogie: What's a psychotropic?

Doctor: Hey, buddy!

Doogie: How's it going?

Doctor: How are ya?

Doogie:The doctor here has been in a chair for 20 years.

He was a quadriplegic that eventually gained the use of his arms.

Doogie: Is that solid?

Doctor: Stronger than I look, huh?

Doogie: Yeah.

It's nice to have a doctor in a chair.

Doctor: Okay, you passed the test.

Doogie: He's not going to bullshit ya, he knows.

And this weekend is a year from the accident.

Anything else as far as where I should be at the one-year point?

Doctor: I think you're probably about where you're going to be

for the long-term in terms of recovery of movement and sensation.

I think you're going to be in-line with the rest of us.

Now, you know... when I got hurt many years ago, I used to see pictures

of those nerve cells growing...

Big deep breath in, out, your mouth open, again, one more time.

Parnell: Anywhere that you look up, you can see fireworks going off.

And you hear them and the dog's a little bit nervous,

because we just rescued her out of a fire, and now she's hearing all

of these sounds, but she's a good dog.

Doogie: (glasses clinking) Twelve years deep, and I'm retired.

Everything I did to supplement my income

in the fire department was all manual labor,

hardwood floors, carpentry, roofing.

I can't roof, I'm in a wheelchair.

Nobody's paying me for my mind, that's for sure.

You know, maybe I'm not going to win the lottery, maybe there's no miracle

out there for me, you hope in one hand, and shit in the other and see

which one gets filled up faster.

Jeff: He calls them as he sees them.

He's a straight-shooter, that's for damn sure.

Donald:This is probably the most difficult battle I've had.

And so far in life, I've been fairly successful.

I'm going to hang in there, I'm not going to quit,

I'm going to do the best I can.

I don't want to fail now in the backend of my life, certainly,

backend of my work career.

Parnell: I've got approximately 11 working days left,

and then I'll be retired, that'll be the end of an era.

See I've been with Gloria for the last 35 years, and this is going

to be different, totally different.

So I don't know, I don't know what that's going to be like.

I don't want to think about it.

Dispatcher: (inaudible) Alarm Company is responding.

Fire is reported in a dwelling.

They state that a child is trapped

in the upstairs attic, in the upstairs attic.

Reporter: A three-year-old girl dies

after being trapped in her burning home.

When help arrived, the fire truck wasn't equipped for the job.

But a tactical truck was the first to arrive.

It's smaller, didn't have a ladder, and didn't have a driver

who could use the 300-gallon tank.

Man: (mournful singing).

Man: Thank you,Jesus.

Woman: Oh, Jesus!

Man:This is a personal tragedy, because this is my family, okay?

And all I know is that everyone

of these guys would have risked their life to save.

Group: Yes, thank you, thank you.

Man: They did not fail.

Who failed us was the City!

Woman:Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you

(mournful singing).

Donald: Oh, it hurts deeply.

You know, I've seen my share of life lost in the fire service,

and you just wonder what could we have done differently?

Ms. LaRock: I'm mad at the City of Detroit

that don't have the equipment to rescue our people.

Why was a faulty truck sent to my fire?!

Host: Ms. LaRock, have you heard from Don Austin yet?

Ms. LaRock: No, I haven't.

Host: What would you say to the Fire Commissioner?

Ms. LaRock: Fire Commissioner, I don't know how you can feel

in the bottom of your heart that everything was done.

There was faulty equipment sent to my fire.

And I wish you were here on this panel, so I could look you dead

in your eye to show you how I feel.

Miller: His hands were tied by the legal department,

he can't say, "I screwed up."

My Chief screwed up."

Man:The person who lives the next block over, next house down,

"they're going to think it was our fault."

(alarm sounds).

Donald: Yeah, some days, I'm beat up.

Three out of five, I feel like a loser, can't seem to get ahead of it.

Every problem seems to generate another problem,

and another problem, and another problem.

I feel like I'm walking in a mine field,

at any time I could sever a leg.

Craig: Tragedy like that, guys do come together, that invisible thing

that bonds us all together, kind of draws you in.

Dave: There's no way to do anything but grieve,

and to get through the grieving process, and the only way to do

that is to stay close to one another, and just pull each other through.

Donald: I don't want you to feel attacked,

I don't want you to feel threatened.

We can figure this out, now, I tell you,

I know that we can figure it out.

Man: Yes, we can.

Donald: Why?

Because we're firefighters.

Man: We know it the best.

Donald:We're still DFD!

We the baddest guys in Michigan!

I want to let you know that I'm in alignment with you,

I'm not against you, I'm not against you.

We're all on one team, "Here's what we did wrong,

here's what we're going to do to improve."

Together, we come up with the answers.

Man: Commissioner, straight-up, we don't look at you as the enemy,

we're accepting you into the family, I think with open arms.

Donald: And I perceive that.

You know, you have to stay positive, it's all about leading, you know,

if the leader is all shaken up and afraid

and you can expect the crew to fall apart.

Craig: Give him the benefit of the doubt.

He knows his business, he seems to know what he's talking about.

If he can pull it all together, you know,

more power to him, go ahead and do it!

Let's see what you can do here.

Donald: Be seeing you again, y'all better get back to work.

Craig: Commissioner's "Let it burn" policy, you know what?

If there's no hazard to nearby structures,

and there's nobody inside the building, let it go,

I don't have a problem with that.

Hey, do not let them go in there.

Man: They do have a door open in the back?

Craig: Yes, that roof looks real shaky there.

It's collapsing right now, isn't it?

Man: Get everybody off the roofl

Get off the roof.

Craig: Hey, get the... hey, get him out of there right now.

Who the fuck is that?

Get out of there!

Man: Get off the roof, Joe.

Chief said, "Everyone off the roof," let's go.

Craig: It's my job now to make sure everybody goes home in one piece.

I'll take it as a huge win that if three years from now when I retire,

that at any of my fires, nobody gets hurt, nobody gets killed.

That's all I'm really concerned about right now.

Parnell:(horn blows) (laughs) What's up, BK, you all right, man?

Good, call me.

Did you ever give my girl in the Ford an invitation?

Man: Your girl in the Ford?

Man: Who you talking about?

Parnell: The woman that's in that Taurus?

Man: Oh, wow, no, I didn't, I don't know that lady.

Parnells: I don't either.

Man: I'm not hitting on her for you (laughter).

Man: My father taught me, never let anything beat me,

you can always figure out a way.

I'm a product of Detroit.

I'm one of those guys that I'm not going to turn my back on Detroit.

Dennis: I'm an optimist, sol see it, it's got to come back.

This City is too great, there's too much history.

Parnell: For all the pain that the City truly causes me,

I still love it, it's still home.

I'm a Detroiter.

Donald: Boy, I tell ya, it feels good to be back in Detroit.

Driving down Woodward drinking myVernor's, man,

this is the life (laughs).

Donald: As firefighters, all we deal with is change.

And we know that we got to fix this thing.

Donald: Hey, man, a single guy only needs like one

of these massive potatoes.

I thought I'd be much further along.

Some mornings, I feel like throwing in the towel.

It wears you down, you know, after a while, 'cause you don't want

to let the people down, I don't want to let them down.

Like every week I work here is about a year off of my life (laughs).

But that's all right, my grandmother lived to be 103,

so I got a lot of time left.

Doogie: So what do you want to eat there, Smiley?

Angie: National Coney Island.

What?

Doogie: Somebody telling me that I can't walk,

it's not going to kill me.

I have other things to worry about, you know, like maybe trying

to start a family, and stuff like that.

So all that stuff is still possible.

This shit doesn't happen overnight, progress takes time.

Dispatcher: Detroit Fire Department, the time is 07, 28 hours.

Congratulations, FEO Franklin Parnell of Engine 50

from the Detroit Fire Department on your retirement from Central office.

Man: Congratulations.

Parnell:Thanks, so much, Keith.

Man: Congratulations.

Parnell:Thank you, I appreciate it.

Today is the last day that I will be standing in this uniform

for the Detroit Fire Department.

Miller: So we're having a few guests tonight.

Like the whole battalion, some family members, some friends.

Parnell: Hey, Fred!

What's up, man?

Just glad to be on the job, huh?

Miller: I'm sure the fires will be annoying and screw it up today.

It's hard to plan this kind of stuff around work.

Oh, I want that piece.

Parnell: I think they might miss me.

I'm going to stop by occasionally and say, "Hello."

It's going to be different, but it's going to be good.

Yeah, I'm going to stick with that, it's still going

to be good, no matter what.

It's going great, absolutely great.

I'm looking at a true blessing here.

That was Craig.

Captain Daugherty, or Chief Daugherty, now.

Yea h, yeah, wow.

Dispatcher: Two-alarm, Engine 60 and Ladder 23.

Man: 60's and Ladder 23.

Man: Engine 60 en route.

Man: Ladder 23 en route.

Dispatcher: Two-alarm, Engine 50, Squad 6.

Man: Chief 9 en route, Engine 50 and Squad 6... (sirens)

Parnell: Is it okay to get my favorite kiss?

See ya.

Man: C'mon, let's go.

Parnell: I got it.

Yeah, he's got it.

I'll be seeing ya, man.

Man: See ya bro, see ya, hug, okay.

Man: See ya later tonight, bro.

Parnell: Take care, see ya, thank you.

All right, Mr. Johnson, take care.

(siren fades into distance).

(crickets chirping).

Engine!

Engine!

Engine!

Miller: Where to?

Man: Engine 50, Ladder 23, Chief 9 en route.

Dispatcher: Engine 50, Ladder 23, Chief 9 en route.

Box Alarm Company's responding.

Fire reported, 14467 Almont.

Engine 50 stretching on a dwelling.