[ShonTron]

Oh, the motor city's burnin'
It ain't no thing in the world that I can do
Don't ya know the big D is burnin'?
Ain't no thing in the world that Johnny can do
My home town burnin' down to the ground
Worser than Viet Nam
- John Lee Hooker

I was in Detroit last weekend, and while photographing the urban prairie in the East Side near Warren and Joseph Campeau, I saw smoke in the distance and screaming fire trucks. I heard that that vacant buildings in Detroit are burning at a new high, but did not expect to see it for myself.

There's an interesting story in the Star from July:
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/a...on-rampage-as-hundreds-of-buildings-destroyed

This is the fate of 4083 Dodge Street, in the northeast side of the city.

A house fire draws the locals.

Detroit fire fighters look on.




Two houses recently burned on Grandy Street that I was photographing before I headed up to Dodge Street. There's a notice offering a reward for information to prosecute the fire as an arson.

 

[Hipster Duck]

Wow, thanks for this.

I took a look at the area in question in Google maps and I was more amazed to find out how intact the neighbouring street in the area is. Oliver St., just two blocks to the south, isn't missing any houses, looks reasonably well-kept, and seems to be the centre of a small Yemeni community.

The area to the immediate west, however, is completely devastated and looks to have been completely demolished and let to disintegrate into prairie.

Urban decay is a fascinating quiltwork.

 

[Mustapha]

Fascinating series of pictures. I hope it wasn't a financial disaster for the owner.