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Devil's Night 2010

StonedPlanet

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StonedPlanet Advanced Member

StonedPlanet

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After driving around for hours trying to find a GOOD fire, our hard work paid off!

This was the hottest fire I have ever witnessed. The house next door is lucky to have aluminum siding.. Vinyl siding would've melted, causing a lot of damage and would've made quite a mess.

Music by Rage Against the Machine

 

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Nemosity Advanced Member

Nemosity

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The movie with Brandon Lee called "The Crow" sensationalized Devils Night in Detroit. I think it was made sometime in the 90's?? Anyway, Detroit always has a ton of fires on Devils night. Not surprising that someone with a photographic passion may go looking to get some good video or B-roll on a night that you have more chances of getting one on camera. Kinda like storm chasers, except it only happens once a year.

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Rashore Advanced Member

Rashore

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Oh, well that makes a ton more sense then, lol... I didn't realize Detroit had that problem. Alrighty that just puts into the storm chaser category, or the folks that go hit cemeteries on halloween.

Huh... Why does Detroit have that problem? Has it always had a devils night phenomena, or just since the crow movie?

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drtarzanmd Advanced Member

drtarzanmd

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I hope your being sarcastic? Nobody wins when you scam the insurance companies........We pay higher premiums because of it............HJ

 

 

Yes i was ...

 

Trust me ... No one Knows more then me

about paying SKY-HIGH Premiums on a 1969 Trailor House ...

 

Our Home Insurance Policy was costing Us almost $100 a Month ...

 

You tell me how fair that is ? ? ? ?

 

Or $70 a month for PLPD on my Car Insurance

w/ No Points on my Record and I'm over 50 years old ....

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StonedPlanet Advanced Member

StonedPlanet

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You would be surprised how many people were there with cameras rolling.. Not to mention how many people were there just to watch.

There were people in every direction, it looked more like a block party than most block parties look like.

 

The footage doesn't feature me giggling like a lunatic. Where does this video say that I got any joy from the fire.

I am always in Detroit. Roof top beers are my thing to do and you see many fires just hitting a random roof top in the middle of the night on any night in Detroit.

So what else to do on "Devil's Night"? Pretend the fires don't exist? Just look the other way?

My father used to be a fireman, I have a certain respect for what they do and I know why they do it. The heat generated from this fire made me feel like I was about to catch on fire from across the street.

Fire is a tool, not a toy.

Fire is useful for many things such as a heating tool for melting steel, the creation of glass, and is used world-wide as a tool for many other things..

Maybe it is the city who sets this up every year to help demolish these abandoned homes with little effect on the tax budget.

 

Now let me make this clear:

I do not agree with arson one bit. People are murdered or scarred for life from arson fires. Imagine trying to get a good night's sleep after being a victim of arson some random night..

It would be very beneficial to the city of Detroit to bulldoze these abandoned homes. This would help to cut crime and make the city more pleasant to the eye.

Instead the state is trying to focus on our medical marijuana act. They would rather spend the time to worry about marijuana than to worry about getting these crack houses and abandonments cleaned up.

 

Some of the comments above are pretty ignorant in my opinion. Don't throw rocks when you live in a glass house. Spend the time that you worried about my motives for filming a big fire on helping to get the city cleaned up and there would be no fires to film in the first place. Go visit Detroit and imagine yourself living there for 20+ years and your neighbor moves away and the house becomes a crack/whore house, then finally trashed and abandoned by them it sits there rotting and stinking, a perfect dark place to drag some victim for other crimes to be committed.. Would you be sad to see that house burn? Or would you be out on your front lawn watching it with a sigh of relief? I am sure a few neighbors on that block were glad to see another abandoned house go away, perhaps you should not pass judgement on others when you have no clue what you are talking about.

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420Atheist Advanced Member

+420Atheist

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Has it always had a devils night phenomena, or just since the crow movie?

 

This history of Halloween is an interesting one. At least to me it is. Originally it was the Pagan holiday Samhain (most agree the correct pronunciation is Sow-Win.) It was the celebration of the dead. The time of year when the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead was thinnest and the recently dead could cross over. And the bad spirits could also cross back and cause havoc. Samhain was normally practiced on the equinox and was the Celtic new year.

 

The Catholic Church wanting to convert all the Pagans over to their religion created their own holiday for the dead. They declared Nov 1st to be All Hollows Day (aka All Saints Day) so the night before became All Hollows Eve and shortened to Halloween.

 

Devils Night actually goes back to the 1930s and is believed to have come from Irish immigrants who's "tricks" were more that just smashing a pumpkin if they did not get a treat. It is odd that even though Devils night has been practiced in some cities across the US it does seem to be more prevalent on the East side of Michigan.

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StonedPlanet Advanced Member

StonedPlanet

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From Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devils_Night

This history of Halloween is an interesting one. At least to me it is. Originally it was the Pagan holiday Samhain (most agree the correct pronunciation is Sow-Win.) It was the celebration of the dead. The time of year when the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead was thinnest and the recently dead could cross over. And the bad spirits could also cross back and cause havoc. Samhain was normally practiced on the equinox and was the Celtic new year.

 

The Catholic Church wanting to convert all the Pagans over to their religion created their own holiday for the dead. They declared Nov 1st to be All Hollows Day (aka All Saints Day) so the night before became All Hollows Eve and shortened to Halloween.

 

Devils Night actually goes back to the 1930s and is believed to have come from Irish immigrants who's "tricks" were more that just smashing a pumpkin if they did not get a treat. It is odd that even though Devils night has been practiced in some cities across the US it does seem to be more prevalent on the East side of Michigan.

"Devil's Night dates as early as the 1930s. Traditionally, city youths engaged in a night of criminal behavior, which usually consisted of acts of vandalism (such as egging, soaping or waxing windows and doors, leaving rotten vegetables or flaming bags of animal feces on front porch stoops, or toilet papering trees and shrubs). These were almost exclusively acts of petty vandalism, causing little to no property damage.

However, in the early 1970s, the vandalism escalated to more devastating acts, such as arson. This primarily took place in the inner city, but surrounding suburbs were often affected as well. In addition, property owners unable to sell in the city's rapidly declining housing market would use Devil's Night as an opportunity to burn down their homes, collect the insurance money, and claim that an arsonist was at fault.

The crimes became more destructive in Detroit's inner-city neighborhoods, and included hundreds of acts of arson and vandalism every year. The destruction reached a peak in the mid- to late-1980s, with more than 800 fires set in 1984, and 500 to 800 fires in the three days and nights before Halloween in a typical year."

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420Atheist Advanced Member

+420Atheist

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"Devil's Night dates as early as the 1930s. Traditionally, city youths engaged in a night of criminal behavior, which usually consisted of acts of vandalism (such as egging, soaping or waxing windows and doors, leaving rotten vegetables or flaming bags of animal feces on front porch stoops, or toilet papering trees and shrubs). These were almost exclusively acts of petty vandalism, causing little to no property damage.

However, in the early 1970s, the vandalism escalated to more devastating acts, such as arson. This primarily took place in the inner city, but surrounding suburbs were often affected as well. In addition, property owners unable to sell in the city's rapidly declining housing market would use Devil's Night as an opportunity to burn down their homes, collect the insurance money, and claim that an arsonist was at fault.

The crimes became more destructive in Detroit's inner-city neighborhoods, and included hundreds of acts of arson and vandalism every year. The destruction reached a peak in the mid- to late-1980s, with more than 800 fires set in 1984, and 500 to 800 fires in the three days and nights before Halloween in a typical year."

 

It does make me want to ask a sociologist why it is such a regional thing. There are reports from other cities but Detroit does seem to be the epicenter for this activity.

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Captain Obvious Advanced Member

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Some of the comments above are pretty ignorant in my opinion. Don't throw rocks when you live in a glass house. Spend the time that you worried about my motives for filming a big fire on helping to get the city cleaned up and there would be no fires to film in the first place. Go visit Detroit and imagine yourself living there for 20+ years and your neighbor moves away and the house becomes a crack/whore house, then finally trashed and abandoned by them it sits there rotting and stinking, a perfect dark place to drag some victim for other crimes to be committed.. Would you be sad to see that house burn? Or would you be out on your front lawn watching it with a sigh of relief? I am sure a few neighbors on that block were glad to see another abandoned house go away, perhaps you should not pass judgement on others when you have no clue what you are talking about.

 

Very well said :thumbsu:

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

http://www.detroitmichiganrealestatehomes.com/detroita-039-s-devils-night-fires

 

Detroit's Devils night fires

 

Yes Detroit's Devils night fires haven't stopped. In fact they are up 42% over last year. This year (2010) they had 169 fires over 119 fires in 2009. Detroit has about 35-40 fires on a normal day. There has been an increase in Devils's nights fires in the last two years, but it way down from the high of 800 fires in 1984. Which is a good thing.

 

The Detroit fire chief says it is because there are so many abandoned homes. I would probably agree with that. They estimate that there are over 10,000 vacant/abandoned homes in Detroit. With the average home sales price last year being around $12,000 it does not pay to buy a vacant home and fix it up. You can get a decent home for $12,000. Even if you got an abandoned home for free, by the time you put in a furnace, hot water heater, copper plumbing, and anything else that was stolen you would be over $12,000. You would be losing money and have spent all the time doing the work when you could buy a home already done for $12,000.

 

I bet we will see a continuation of a rise in fires in Detroit on Devils night in the years to come because of all the vacant homes.

 

Some real estate agents from another commented on this article on another blog and said they don't get it. Years ago I believe the burning of abandoned homes started as a way for residents to voice their disatisfaction with the slowness of bulldozing the abandoned homes. It was their way of getting rid of the homes and blaming it on the "undesirable drug dealers or vagrants". Then everybody started in and it got out of control.

 

Now it has become a symbol of Detroit. The burning of vacant homes. Kind of sad isn't it?

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420Atheist Advanced Member

+420Atheist

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Some real estate agents from another commented on this article on another blog and said they don't get it. Years ago I believe the burning of abandoned homes started as a way for residents to voice their disatisfaction with the slowness of bulldozing the abandoned homes. It was their way of getting rid of the homes and blaming it on the "undesirable drug dealers or vagrants". Then everybody started in and it got out of control.

 

The ends do not justify the means. What if your home is next door and burns down too? Firefighters have to take unnecessary risk. Are those arsonist taking the time to confirm there is not a homeless family squatting in the house? I don't see how arson can ever be justified.

 

Whether or not any of us have done anything to help the city bounce back has nothing to do with the premise that it was fun and cool to go look for a house burning down. That fallacy of distraction being put forth is called an tu quoque (trying to dismiss or downplay an accusation by demonstrating that the accuser himself is guilty of misconduct.)

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Rashore Advanced Member

Rashore

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Wow, thanks for all the info guys!! I'm not currently in MI yet, still property hunting. But I do have friends and family in the Ann Arbor and Benton Harbor areas, and it didn't seem like devils night was a phenomena there.

I know about Devils Night, I just had thought is was an out of date trend, old fashioned. I had no idea that the phenomenon was still happening, and in Detroit.

lol, at my household, halloween fires are usually a lil hotbox on the back porch, and a few candles that are burned till dawn, under supervision :)

 

Sorry if I came off too ignorant or harshly judging about filming the fires. I just didn't know about the prevalent phenomena that would cause it. Now that I know about it, not so weird to me.

Sad that so many buildings get hit by arson though.

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Silverblue Advanced Member

+Silverblue

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When I was growing up, I remember something called "mischief night," which was on the night before halloween. The pranks that were done were as described, doing things with eggs, t-paper, and such, though I think sometimes they did throw stuff at houses and off rooftops. People need a way to vent their frustration and or pent up energy. I wish I were a sociologist, it'd be interesting to know why Detroit seems to be the main center of the arson.

 

It'd be bad enough getting hit by a flying egg.

 

Sb

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phaquetoo Advanced Member

phaquetoo

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Oh, well that makes a ton more sense then, lol... I didn't realize Detroit had that problem. Alrighty that just puts into the storm chaser category, or the folks that go hit cemeteries on halloween.

Huh... Why does Detroit have that problem? Has it always had a devils night phenomena, or just since the crow movie?

 

 

When i was living in the detroit area in the 80's i beleive, we used to have a friend who lived in the jeffersonian i beleive vandyke and jefferson, we used to go there in the high rise and watch all the fires on devils nite!

 

The reason the devil nite fires started was during coleman youngs run as mayor,,,there were so many abanded homes in every neighbor hood they were unsafe for children, crack dealers would move in to them and sell drugs, and shoot up the neigbor hood, drug users used in them and created hazards, needles, condoms,etc kids on there way to skewl getting pulled into them and raped,

 

the detroit gov under young didnt destroy enough of these homes,,They were a nuisance and the people got sick of it and started burning them on devils nite, and the city still didnt clean them up?

 

Thats the kind a detroit i remember! sad!

 

Peace

FTW

Jim

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