They serve as a life line for fire fighters. The air cannisters members of the Detroit Fire Department carry on their backs help keep them safe as they work to protect people and property.
Sgt. Bill Harp identified a problem with many of those tanks while in charge Sunday.
"I originally realized that we had a systemic problem," he says. "Out of 10 air bottles that are assigned to that company, 6 of them were bad."
It has since been determined that more than a third of the 420 bottles were noncompliant. Harp told 7 Action News the initial response he got from his superiors was not acceptable - so he went public.
"Unfortunately, the people that we know and work with are the ones sometimes endangering us - even greater than the fires," he said. The department is transitioning to new and larger tanks, according to fire commissioner Edsel Jenkins. Jenkins acknowledged that certification on some of the current bottles had lapsed.
"Now we have this issue and, so what we're doing, we're checking every bottle on every apparatus and, if it's not in compliance, we're sending it out to a third party to have it in compliance," he said.
The first group of tanks were returned to service Wednesday afternoon after being pulled out of fire stations to be hydrostatically tested. Over the next few days, all other non-compliant tanks will also be tested, according to Jenkins.
Harp previously served on the fire fighters' union executive board and he's up for election again. He insisted he was not using this issue to help him get elected.