Photo - Detroit Ruins

One of the days I was out exploring, I was driving into a neighborhood called Hamtramck, and right before the city limit I passed this building. Something drew me to it and I took a few photos of the outside. Stepping over the rubble and trash, I got the chills. Once "inside," the burned down walls, it was insane to see something like this in person.

Besides 60% of the city being abandoned, many of the homes and buildings are also ruined because of fires. The house was burned down because arson is a huge crime in Detroit. People set abandoned buildings and homes aflame in large numbers that the fire department can't keep up.

According to this article, there were 5,000 arsons estimated by the Detroit Fire Department in 2012. It's truly an alarming number, with an average of 14 fires EVERY SINGLE DAY.

It's one thing to look at pictures on the internet, but to see the way Detroit (or any place that is suffering) is in person is completely different. I'm still kind of in shock at how much of the city is completely desolate.