For decades, Devil's Night in Detroit was a horror story -- a night when arsonists ran amok, and when homeowners stood on their lawns with garden hoses running while the city reeled amid hundreds of fires that firefighters couldn't douse.
Now? The plague of arson seems to be over. As trick-or-treaters made the rounds Wednesday night, Detroit Fire Commissioner Eric Jones released a statement about Devil's Night at the Free Press' request.
Referring to Tuesday, Jones said:
"It was a very quiet night, much quieter than last year. We all are looking forward to a fun time during Halloween in the D."
According to Jones, the daily totals of fires (counted from midnight to midnight) have been ebbing for several years on the two nights preceding Halloween. And they dropped dramatically from 2017 to this year, according to data released Wednesday.