Thieves ripped apart nearly 75 fire hydrants on Detroit’s west side in about 48 hours recently, stripping metal nozzles and stems worth around $600 each.
City officials say the damage is a serious public safety threat because firefighters arriving at a scene may find no working hydrant nearby. “No matter how fast we get to a fire, if we don’t have an operable fire hydrant, it takes seconds, sometimes even minutes away from maybe us saving lives,” the fire commissioner said. Repair crews are racing to fix the damage along Southfield Road and across the west side.
The city is now warning scrapyards not to accept the stolen parts and is replacing damaged pieces with harder-to-remove hardware that requires special tools.
