The Studebaker Factory Fire, Detroit

In April, 2005, the massive former Studebaker factory at Piquette and John R in Detroit burned. I witnessed the fire and was there — without my camera — for hours along with a large crowd of reveling onlookers, who occasionally broke out in a chorus of “the roof is on fire.” This fire included exploding propane tanks, four-story brick walls collapsing onto parked cars and demolishing streetlights (which were never repaired, they were replaced with stop signs). Even several blocks away, the heat still felt like a campfire. Around 100 firefighters battled the blaze, including some who had traveled into the city from the suburbs. Most of their effort was in keeping the top of adjacent buildings wet to prevent the rest of the neighborhood from catching. Thought partly abandoned, there was an active grocery store and meat market on one and of the building, and the rotting meat under the rubble caused a repellent stench in the subsequent weeks and flies soon infested the site.

I returned to the site the day after the fire and took these photos. I also have some low-frame-rate video taken on my modest 2005-era Canon point-and-shoot camera, which I have linked below, followed by other clips from Youtube including one of the night of the fire showing the scale.