Before heading out in the cold rain, volunteers joined hands in the sanctuary of Spirit of Love Missionary Baptist Church on Detroit's east side and prayed.
"Hopefully, we'll have another successful night with nothing to report," O'Dell Tate, president of the MorningSide Neighborhood Association, said after the prayer.
Angels' Night volunteers fanned out across Detroit on Tuesday night, hoping their watchful eyes would help curtail any would-be arsonists in the days leading up to Halloween.
City and fire officials on Tuesday would not release the number of fires that occurred that day or Monday. They said a total tally from the three-day Angels' Night period, which ends today, wouldn't be released until later this week. But volunteers and police indicated early in the evening that it appeared to be a quiet night for fires.
There were 94 fires across Detroit during the same period in 2011.
"Our goal is to have less fires than that this year," Mayor Dave Bing said at the Spirit of Love church.
Detroit Police Officer Audrey Curtis said just before 8 p.m. that she heard on her radio about two or three fires.
"It's been slow tonight," she said, standing outside the church in gusty winds. "It's more calling for down wires and traffic signals because of the weather."
Angels' Night began in the 1990s, and the combined community, police and fire patrols have been credited with helping to decrease the number of fires that occur in the city on and around Halloween.
Volunteers Jerome Anthony, 40, and James Moeller, 73, cruised slowly Tuesday night past mostly well-kept, tidy homes -- and some that were vacant -- in the MorningSide neighborhood, which is bordered in part by I-94, Mack and Alter. A yellow light flashed atop Anthony's burgundy Mercury Grand Marquis.
Tate said there were no fires in the MorningSide neighborhood Monday and only one fire Tuesday night, due to a downed power line.
Anthony said volunteering to patrol neighborhoods on Angels' Night is about the pride he feels in his community and setting an example for others.
"How can you expect for anything to ever get better if you don't roll up your sleeves and make one step yourself?" he said.
Copyright 2012 - Detroit Free Press
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
