The devil has gone down in Detroit. For the third straight year the city had a record low Angels’ Night fires during the last three days of October.

This year there were 54 fires, the second lowest number of fires in Angels’ Night history. The news is go good Mayor Mike Duggan, Police Chief James Craig and Fire Commissioner Eric Jones announced the annual Angels’ Night citywide patrol campaign will be replaced by a three-day community celebration with fun-filled events for kids and their families.

“During the three-day Angels’ Night period of 2015, Detroit saw the lowest number of fires in 20 years,” says Duggan.  “Since then, the numbers have remained low and are similar to the number of fires we experience on an average night.  After yet another quiet year, it’s clear this is the time to give Halloween back to our children.

“Halloween in Detroit isn’t going to be about fear. It’s going to be about fun.  And not only that, it’s going to last for three days.  I’d like to thank the thousands of Detroiters who volunteered over the years to keep our city safe and now it’s time to watch our kids play not patrol,” he says.

Mayor Duggan says he made the decision based on recommendations from Chief Craig and Commissioner Jones, who pointed to low numbers of Angels’ Night fires and arrests over the past several years. They also based their recommendation on conversations with community leaders.

“Quite frankly, there just isn’t the fire activity anymore to justify this kind of mass mobilization,” says Jones. “While they haven’t had to put out as many fires, our firefighters have really been getting into the spirit of the Halloween activities.”

Prior to 2015, there were nearly 100 fires, compared with 354 in 1994 and more than 800 seen regularly in the 1980s.  Last year there were 59 fires.

Here’s a historical breakdown:

YEAR                     3-DAY FIRES

1984                       810

1994                       354

2010                       169

2011                       94

2012                       93

2013                       95

2014                       97

2015                       52

2016                       59

2017                       54
The number of fires in Detroit each year is also going down.Since 2014, there has been a 37 percent reduction in the number of structure fires annually. The city says one reason is its blight removal program, which has resulted in the demolition of nearly 13,000 vacant buildings. In addition, under the Land Bank auction and other programs, more than 3,000 structurally sound vacant houses in the city have been or are being renovated and reoccupied.

YEAR                     ANNUAL STRUCTURE FIRES

2014                       3748

2015                       3211

2016                       2893

2017                       2346 (YTD)

  Angels Night, Detroit community safety, Detroit Neighborhoods, Mayor Mike Duggan