Got this in an email just now:


please forward!


Emergency Demo in Detroit tomorrow


Dear MWRO members and friends,

Three children died on Tuesday as the result of a DTE shut-off. Here is the press release that is being sent out about the Thursday demonstration at DTE:

"How many more must die?" -- Three babies die in DTE-shutoff fire

Emergency Demonstration:

Thursday, March 4, 12 -1 pm, DTE Headquarters

Three babies -- Trevion Young, Fantasia Young and Selena Young -- died as a result of a DTE shutoff of the gas and electricity to their home on Bangor Street, reported the Detroit Free Press online today. This brings the total murdered by DTE this season to fourteen.

Those murdered are:
Vaughn Reed
Markesha Reed
Demonte Reed
DeMarco Reed
Booker T. James Sr.
Jeffrey B. Garrett
Lynn Greer
Tyrone Allen
Marvin Allen Sr.
Welton Crawford
Davion Grant

"What kind of world do we live in where children can die a fiery death and there is no massive outcry?" said Maureen Taylor, chairperson of MWRO. "We call on everyone opposed to this constant inhumanity against poor people to join us at DTE tomorrow, Thursday, from 12-1 pm and demand an immediate moratorium on gas and light shutoffs," she said.

"This is the second time in two weeks that someone has died in a fire the day after a visit from DTE," said Gwen Gaines, organizer at MWRO. "I attended the funeral for my neighbor Jeffrey Garrett, killed by DTE, who left 10 children. I am marching tomorrow to demand an end to shutoffs so that his children will have a future," she said.


For more information please see:
Poverty Initiative http://povertyinitiative.org/
People's Tribune http://www.peoplestribune.org/
Michigan Welfare Rights Organization http://www.mwro.org

--
Michigan Welfare Rights Organization • 23 E Adams St • 4th Floor • Detroit MI 48226
Phone: (313) 964-0618 Fax: (313) 964-2600
Email: mwroinfo@gmail.com or info@mwro.org
Website: www.mwro.org
Blog: www.michiganwro.blogspot.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=132746745037
Twitter: http://twitter.com/mwro

"You get what you are organized to take!"

it sounds like they died not because the heat was turned off but because they were using candles for lighting and one of the candles caught something on fire. Its a big risk.

Or am I missing something about how they died a "fiery death"?

Regardless, 14 deaths? That is unconscionable. I thought there were shutoff laws prohibiting gas being shutoff during winter?

Often it's the homewoner/resident trying to re-start the electricity illegally (and likely unsafely), or in some cases they may be trying to have a contained fire indoors to heat the place and it gets out of hand...It gets dangerously cold here at night, even now that the temps are higher during the day. Add to it an old, poorly insulated drafty home, the danger of falling asleep when you are bordering on hypothermia....it's a recipe for disaster...

I may do a little more digging to find out what's been going on this year. I think the shutoff laws only apply to people who are on oxygen or some other life-saving equipment that requires power.

As opposed to heat itself being lifesaving in the winter here for an otherwise healthy person. Or an old person, or a baby, or anyone. :(

Note - these people were renting the home and had just recently moved in - they had nothing to do with delinquent bills and probably weren't aware that the electricity had been illegally hooked up. Then DTE shut it off again...the landlord (who probably re-hooked-up the electricity AGAIN) gave them the space heater since they got the electrical back on (illegally again) but not the gas which is apparently more difficult to do ...

Here's an article from the Detroit Free Press.
http://www.freep.com/article/20100303/NEWS01/100303011/1318/DTE-Illegal-power-hookup-resumed-hours-before-fatal-Detroit-fire

Someone inside the now-charred home on Detroit’s Bangor Street was determined to keep the electricity flowing.

Within hours of DTE Energy cutting off service to the home because it had been hooked up illegally for months, two locks that had been placed by the utility on the electric meter box had been cut off — and power was restored.

The Detroit Fire Department is investigating whether that second illegal hookup led to the Tuesday deaths of three children – Travion Young, 5, Salena, 3, and Fantasia, 4 – after a blaze tore through the two-story home.

Four children survived the blaze by jumping from a second-story window, witnesses said. At least one – Jalen Young – was still being treated at Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit this evening. A spokeswoman there said the boy was in good condition.Sylvia Young, the youngsters’ mother, was not home when the fire started, officials said.

Shomika Young, the children’s aunt, said the three who died were the closest of all the children.

“They were great kids, all of them,” she said. “Travion, the 5-year-old, he was short. We called him ‘Mighty Midget.’”

An electric space heater was visible through the front window of the home, and neighbors said they believe the family was using the device to keep warm because DTE had disconnected the gas, which is harder to reconnect than electricity.

“We can’t encourage customers enough to contact us if they’re having problems paying their utility bills,” said Scott Simons, a DTE spokesman, “but if we don’t know about them, it’s very tough.”

Fire officials said the investigation is ongoing. Sylvia Young told WDIV-TV (Channel 4) that her landlord had supplied her with the space heater.

DTE had disconnected gas and electricity to the home at 3 p.m. Members of the utility’s theft-investigation team removed the gas meter and double-locked the electricity meter, Simons said.

Less than four hours later, the home was engulfed in flames.

Seven children were home alone when the fire broke out, said Jarmar Taylor, 18, who lives nearby and said he rushed to the home when he saw flames bust through a front bay window.

“They threw the infant down to my mom,” Taylor said. “There was no way out.”

Neighbors said they tried in vain to break down the front door. They rushed behind the house and kicked in a back door, but the smoke was too thick to enter, said Diante Wilson, 27.

Anton Mills, 20, said he lived in the house until December, after which the new family moved in. The property is a rental home that, as of March 1, was $637 delinquent in property taxes, according to City of Detroit records.

Keith Owens, Wayne County director of communications, said the listed owner is Darnell Jackson of Detroit. A woman answering the phone at Jackson’s residence said he wasn’t available for comment.

Today, the front porch of the home had turned into a makeshift shrine as people dropped off stuffed animals, balloons and candles.

LaTonya Jackson, 42, approached the home and blessed it, then bellowed scripture.

“DTE has got blood on their hands,” she yelled. “DTE!”

Simons said a previous resident had DTE cut off services to the home Dec. 11. No one had asked for it to be restored since then, he said.

Fifth Battalion Fire Chief Gary Lauer said that firefighters arriving at the scene about 6:30 p.m. thought the home was vacant until someone finally told them that three children were trapped upstairs.

They found the children pretty quickly, Lauer said. “But the smoke and the heat and the fire was so intense, they were in pretty bad shape when we found them.”

The mother arrived at the home shortly after the fire broke out, hysterical about the tragedy, Lauer said.

a tragedy. Also, note the part about the firefighters. Everytime I've ever dealt with them, they've been fuckups.

I got nothing...

[div class="excerpt"]“We can’t encourage customers enough to contact us if they’re having problems paying their utility bills,” said Scott Simons, a DTE spokesman, “but if we don’t know about them, it’s very tough.”[/quote]

Liar.

I don't know what is going on down there now, but when I was there DTE had privatized their collections and shut off "services" hiring a bunch of poor white suburbanites who were paid shit and had to use their own cars. Shut offs were very aggressive and disorganized and haphazard.

[div class="excerpt"]Fifth Battalion Fire Chief Gary Lauer said that firefighters arriving at the scene about 6:30 p.m. thought the home was vacant until someone finally told them that three children were trapped upstairs.

They found the children pretty quickly, Lauer said. “But the smoke and fire and heat was so intense, they were in pretty bad shape when we found them.”[/quote]

WTF? "Bad shape when we found them?" WTF??? Didn't know there might be people inside?? WTF? "Smoke and heat and fire so intense?" Uh, yeah it is a house fire you idiot. WTF??

Notice the common thread there? "We didn't know, what could we do?"

Looks like it was a gas heater - and the free press was wrong (shocking) about the implication that they had hooked the electric back up and had an electric heater.


Three children perish in Detroit house fire

Three children died in a house fire on Detroit’s west side on Tuesday evening, while two more remain hospitalized. Another two children escaped the blaze without physical injury.

Only a few hours before the fire started, DTE Energy cut off gas and electricity to the home for non-payment. While the Fire Department has not yet finished its examination, neighbors believe an electric or gas-fueled space heater which the family was using may have blown up or ignited.

A 30-year-old mother, Sylvia Young, lived in the old wooden house with her seven children. According to the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office, Travion, Fantasia, and Salina Young, ages five, four, and three respectively, were killed by smoke inhalation and soot. Children’s Hospital in Detroit reports that the two children currently receiving medical attention, Jalen, who is eight years old, and Sylvia, who is three months old, are in good condition.

The death toll could have been much worse had it not been for the actions of three young neighbors who formed a ring outside one of the second-story windows and had three of the children, one of whom was holding the infant Sylvia, jump into their arms.



Jamar Taylor, 18, was one of those who caught the children when they jumped from the burning house.

“I was in my house when I heard all the commotion outside. I heard screaming and hollering and noticed that it was real bad. We tried to get into the front door but it would not open. So we went around the house to the back and kicked in the back door,” he explained.

Jamar said they could not get through the flames so they told the terrified children to leap out of the window.

Melvin, who helped in the rescue effort with Jamar, told the WSWS, “I was in my van when I heard an explosion and a bunch of smoke started coming out of the house.”

He added that he thought the three who died “ran and hid in the house” because “they were so afraid.”

Melvin continued, “They didn’t have any gas. The landlord brought them a gas heater.”

House fires as the result of utility shutoffs are a regular occurrence in Detroit. In early January, three people—two of whom were wheelchair-bound—died in a home on Dexter Avenue as the result of a blaze caused by a space heater. Not including Tuesday’s tragedy, there have already been 10 fire-related deaths in Detroit since the start of the year, a majority of which happened in homes that had no heat or electricity.

As is regularly the case, the media, utility company and city authorities sought to foist the blame on the victim, Sylvia Young. The first reports accused her of virtually abandoning her children because she was at a store at the time. In an interview with WDIV-TV the young mother said a handyman had given her a space heater and that she had been out trying to find more when the fire started. “I didn't know I was leaving my children in danger or I would never have left,” she said.

DTE Energy issued a statement that the home was illegally connected to power lines, and that electricity had been turned off in mid-December by the home’s previous occupants when they moved out. Earlier in the day on March 2, a DTE Energy employee noticed the jerry-rigged electrical connection and had the access cut off, according to a spokesman.

Kevin, an unemployed worker who lives in the neighborhood, told the WSWS, “A fire like this is nothing new. Every time you look around another house fire is occurring. It’s bad that they had no lights and gas. I couldn’t live like that. People just can’t afford to pay.”



While DTE Energy says that it is company policy for a representative to try to speak with a resident before turning off utilities, when asked by the WSWS, the agency could not confirm whether it had talked with anyone living at the Bangor Street home ahead of time.

In the immediate aftermath of Tuesday’s tragedy, the company has placed particular emphasis on the fact that the Young family was illegally accessing utilities, as a justification for shutting off services to the home.

Scott Simons, a spokesman for DTE Energy, remarked, “Generally, our theft guys will knock on the door before turning off service. We want to turn them into paying customers and leave them with information that tells them how to go about doing that.”

DTE, which maintains “theft-investigation” teams and a “Revenue Protection Department,” has complained that it has lost $100 million due to illegal hook-ups, while acknowledging that incidents have been on the increase as the economy worsens.

DTE Energy had revenues of $9.3 billion in 2009 and profits of $546 million. Its CEO, Anthony F. Early Jr., has made more than $20 million in the last seven years. Last year alone, the utility company cut off service to 221,000 households in southeast Michigan. Presently, 400,000 people are in arrears, meaning that they could lose their service.



Vincent Burton, the next-door neighbor of the Young family, remarked, “I didn’t think they turned off people in the winter but they do. It just shows that they don’t care.”

As Larry, a laid-off worker, told the WSWS, “This is outrageous. Their utilities were shut off in the middle of winter because she couldn’t pay the bill. Then the landlord brought in a gas heater, which it sounds like caught fire.

“I feel for the situation that this young mother must have been in. I was laid off from a plant after four years, and before that I was laid off after 26 years with the Detroit Public Schools. In different circumstances I could have been in the same predicament she was.


“That woman needed help. Instead the media is so quick to criticize. But no one should have to live like that. Social Services should have done something to help her.

“Why did these kids have to die? The media wants to blame the mother. Look, a dog will do everything to stay warm in the cold—what do you think a human being is going to do in the middle of the winter with children?

“Everything is done to blame the victims. But can you imagine what it is like for kids to be living like this? How can you go to school and try to learn when you’re thinking, ‘I got to go home to a cold house’? Or ‘is there any food at home’? The only hot meal they get is the free one at school.

“When DTE shut this woman off all they were concerned about was the money. They didn’t think to ask about the children inside the house. I hope that they don’t come after the mom. But I wouldn’t be surprised to hear on the radio that they are going to try to prosecute her or take away her kids.”

The fire on Bangor Street has produced an outpouring of sympathy from residents in the area.



Corey Tardley and LaKisha Skinner came by the house after hearing about the children’s deaths to leave a memorial for them.

“It’s terrible,” stated Corey. “With kids in the house you would think they would try to find a way to keep their gas and lights on especially in the winter. Most people can’t keep up with their bills. They were living in a house that is old, the furnace is old and needs to be replaced.”

“Utilities are a necessity,” said LaKisha. “How can you live without utilities? It’s just not fair,” she added, crying.

Linda Darby came by the house to place a stuffed animal in remembrance to the children.



“I came by because I am upset with these deaths. I have 3 kids. This could be anyone of us.”

“I know how hard it is,” stated Darby. “I lost my job over a year ago. I feel that given the way the economy is that something should be done to help people. But nothing is being done. I think people have to come together against these things. We try to do the best we can but it’s not enough.”

The World Socialist Web Site and the Socialist Equality Party are organizing a citizen’s inquiry into utility shutoffs in Detroit. This effort is aimed at unmasking this criminal practice and explaining its relationship to the economic and social crisis in the city. To find out more and to learn about how to participate, click here or contact us. We urge readers, residents, and all those affected by utility shutoffs, to attend the first session of the inquiry on March 20. See below for details.


(once i started bolding passages I realized it was futile - every quote, every detail is like a punch to the gut. How fucking sad and evil)

on full display. Expendable lives. Of course these children do not count as much. Perhaps all the white folks can be moved into clearly demarcated gated zones and the black folk can be kept on the periphery. Power lines will only be allowed in the gated zones and once in a while The State will throw some fire wood over the barbed fences to the unruly savages.

Speaking of ugly defenders of The State. This one got ugly over at DUnderLand:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7849228

You really get to see the true reactionary colors of some of these assholes and it certainly does show there is no room for negotiations with the cretins.

in the fucking face.