Detroit's cash-strapped firefighters take on arson epidemic | Al Jazeera America

Detroit's cash-strapped firefighters take on arson epidemic | Al Jazeera America



Michael Jefferson has been putting out fires in Detroit for two decades. But he can only watch and wait as the city he loves burns around him.

On Tuesday, Detroit became the largest American city to ever qualify for bankruptcy protection. In the most controversial piece of the decision, Judge Steven W. Rhodes of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court ruled that retirees’ pension checks could be cut during a bankruptcy proceeding.
>br/> “You know people work to live comfortably the rest of their lives,” Jefferson, the captain of Engine Company 44, told America Tonight. “You put in 20, 25 years, you expect to be taken care of when you retire.”

Derek Foxhall, Engine Company 44's engine operator and a 15-year veteran of the Detroit Fire Department, calculated that a firefighter with a $30,000 annual pension could see it slashed to just $4,800 with the city in bankruptcy.

“This is a career. You know, you came on this job knowing that at the end of the tunnel there was a light,” he said. “Well, they just turned the light off and said, ‘hey, you find your way out.’ They left us in the dark.”