Flint's approach to fighting vacant structure fires pays off - ABC 12 – WJRT – Flint, MI

(02/27/13) - Years ago, the Flint Fire Department enacted a new policy about how firefighters attack fires at abandoned buildings. That policy has paid off.

"It was a culture change," said Battalion Chief Andy Graves. "It asked us to change the way we'd done things over decades and alter the risk we are willing to expose firefighters to at abandoned buildings."

Flint Firefighters have been getting progress reports recently to show how much injury rates, in particular, have improved because of the policy.

The final review was Wednesday.

"We were taking an injury rate that was three to four times the national average at abandoned building fires," Graves said. "When that info was placed in front of our chiefs, they agreed it was time to change something and that's where our policy came from."

And now?

"We've seen our injury rate drop, seen the cost of injuries drop significantly to where 2/3 the cost of injuries we now incur was happening before the policy was in place," Graves said. "Particularly for burn injuries. Almost 90 percent of cost injuries occurred before policy was put in place."

At the heart of the huge improvements?

The way Flint Firefighters attack fires at abandoned buildings.

Before the policy, they'd try to fight them all for the most part.

"Less than half of our call volume was causing more than half of our injuries," Graves said.

Even after their efforts, the properties couldn't be saved. Graves says 96 percent of the time, they still faced demolition.

The property is considered more valuable demolished and certainly not worth the risk of injury.

Graves says Flint is believed to be the first city in the state known to put one of these policies in place.

Word has spread and the policy here has been used as a model for many other departments.