Tresa Baldas

Detroit Free Press

DETROIT — Detroit is so broke that firefighters get emergency alerts through pop cans, coins, door hinges, pipes and doorbells.

And they make these gizmos themselves — one involving a pop can that gets tipped over by an incoming fax. The clink of the can means there's an emergency. Then there's the chain-reaction gadget: a fax hits a door hinge, which then tugs on a wire, which then sets off a door bell.

"It sounds unbelievable, but it's truly what the guys have been doing and dealing with for a long long time," said Detroit Deputy Fire Commissioner John Berlin, adding that technological upgrades are long overdue. "We're in desperate need. We're probably 30 years behind."

Berlin's comments confirmed Friday's testimony by a consultant for the city who said during day four of Detroit's bankruptcy trial that technological upgrades are long overdue in the city.

The witness, Charles Moore, said the city plans to spend $1.4 billion on services when it emerges from bankruptcy. Technology, he said, needs to be a priority. To bolster his argument, he shared the pop-can, fire-alert story.

Moore said one of his colleagues who spends lots of time at Detroit fire houses told him about it.

Turns out, Moore's colleague was right: None of the city's 38 fire houses have the modern-day emergency alert systems that most other cities have, due to budget constraints.

In most cities, fire officials say, when an emergency alert comes into a fire station, a series of bells sound off — like Morse code. Then an automated voice offers instructions on which engines go where.

"Well, we don't have that system here," Berlin said. "The firefighters modify ... they improvise."

In other words, Berlin said, they make the alert systems themselves, buying simple materials like wire and doorbells and hinges from the hardware store or Radio Shack. Or they just set an empty pop can by a fax machine, sometimes filling it with coins. Some, he said, still use the old-school method: setting a pipe that sounds like a wind chime near a printer, where the paper alert comes out.

"We're way, way behind the curve. The guys are very creative in these firehouses and that's why you see these pop cans," Berlin said.

That soon could change.

Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr has made public safety a cornerstone of his $1.4 billion reinvestment strategy over the next 10 years, with $42 million carved out for fire department upgrades, including technology systems.

According to a 2013 report issued by Orr, response times for the Fire Department and EMS are "extremely slow" compared with other cities.

The Fire Department's average time is 7 minutes, and EMS' response time is 15 minutes. That's partly due to old trucks and ambulances that are poorly maintained combined with a never-ending string of incidents, the report found. Detroit has had between 11,000 to 12,000 fires every year for the past decade.

That's a lot of pop-can alerts.

"But because we've improvised, that never became a priority," Berlin said of getting an upgraded alert system. "It's been that way since way back. Unfortunately, we fall back on tradition far too often."

Contributing: Joe Guillen of the Free Press