The city of Detroit says they experienced a third straight year of record low Angels' Night fires and will now shift focus away from Angels' Night in 2018 for a new cause.
According ot the city, the citywide patrol campaign for Angels' Night will be replaced by a three-day community celebration that will focus on fun-filled events for kids and their families.
The city law the lowest number of fires in 20 years during the Angels' Night campaign in 2015 with 52. This year, they had 54 fires for the second lowest number.
"After yet another quiet year, it's clear this is the time to give Halloween back to our children," Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said. "From now on, Halloween in Detroit isn't going to be about fear, it's going to be about fun."
In 1984, the city saw 810 fires over a 3-day period. That number hasn't been above 100 since 2010, and has decreased to below 60 over the last three years.
Since 2014, they have seen 38 percent reduction in a number of structure fires each year.
During the three day Angels' Night period this year, the city saw 54 fires, 25 of which were suspicious.
Of those, 13 fires were in occupied buildings and four of those were suspicious; 18 were in vacant buildings with 10 suspicious; 10 vehicle fires, three of which were suspicious; 10 garage fires, four of which were suspicious and three trash/outdoor fires, one of which was suspicious.
"Quite frankly, there just isn't the fire activity anymore to justify this kind of mass mobilization," Fire Commissioner Eric Jones said. "While they haven't had to put out as many fires, our firefighters have really been getting into the spirit of Halloween activites."
