DETROIT (WXYZ) — A propane tank should never be used indoors, fire officials warn. Unfortunately, that may be what's behind a fire at a nonprofit flower farm in Detroit, causing major damage and a loss of everything they were growing for the season.
“We lost over a thousand seedlings,” said Tom Milano, co-founder of Detroit Abloom. “Our potted plants got pulverized. All the shelving just desegregated.”
Detroit Abloom is an organization founded by Milano and his wife, Nancy. The group hosts a wellness garden for plant-based diets to help feed the community, along with using cut flower farming, the creation of native plants and sanctuary gardens to repurpose blighted land in the city of Detroit.
Tom Milano said everything just went up in flames after he lit a burner attached to a propane tank inside the organizations hoop house on the city’s east side. The burner, Tom Milano said, fell off the propane tank because the piece connecting it to the nose of the tank broke.
I reached out to a fire marshal to confirm if the small tank was being used properly. I was told no and a propane tank should never be used indoors.
Detroit Abloom organizers said they were not aware of this and that they had been using the tanks for years to heat up the hoop house, so the seedlings could grow.
Along with the seedlings and plants that were destroyed in the fire, so was the hoop house’s plastic roofing.
Now the team is looking to rebuild, but the organization will need to raise money.
“We need to raise like $15,000 to get back to where we were before,” Tom Milano said.
Neighbors who heard about the devastating fire stopped by the hoop house to help clean up.
When I asked them why they came out, their answer was simple: “They're neighbors,” James Rhodes said. ‘And we help neighbors.”
Tom Milano, said they have never experienced this kind of devastation, but they are hoping the community will step in like Rhodes to help them rebuild.
“Detroit Abloom is all about learning how we can bloom from within,” Tom Milano said. “And as we bloom from within, the world blooms from without.”
To support Detroit Abloom in their rebuilding, visit their fundraising page.
