When the ruins begin to sing

[Images: Three aerial photos of suburban Arizona by Daquella Manera, used through a Creative Commons license].

Malfunctioning fire alarms going off inside foreclosed homes have become a major distraction for fire departments in suburban Arizona, according to ABC15 News.
Fire fighters, however, cannot legally enter a property unless they see smoke or have obtained the owner's permission. But in an era of bank ownership and rampant foreclosure, even finding the owners can take weeks.
The result is that "neighbors have to listen to the alarm until the battery dies, which can take days."
First we were surrounded by ruins, and then those ruins began to sing.

(Thanks to Steve Silberman for the link!)

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

Flip That House, subprime, trashouts, bailout, green pools, bobcats, illegal skaters, Hope for Homeowners, the modern absurdity just keeps piling on!
These houses are very unusual ruins, more like embalmed corpses. So lifelike, almost seems like it could flip tomorrow... and then the deceased's cellphone starts chirping. (Psst! You gonna reach in there and fish it out? Not me, man! Just ignore it...)

June 14, 2009 1:14 PM  
Anonymous John said...

Oh wow. I haven't read BLDGBLOG in months, because architecture suddenly started feeling cold and inhuman to me after a big change in my life. Today I decided to give it a read, and this, the very first entry I read, put tears in my eyes. Thanks Geoff, I still don't know if I like architecture anymore, but I know I like your writing.

June 14, 2009 4:57 PM  
Anonymous posthealth said...

Maybe "when ruins begin to whine" would be a better title for this entry...

June 15, 2009 3:17 PM  
Blogger willow bl00 said...

What a beautiful capture of the abaondoned places we've created...

Thank you.

June 15, 2009 6:12 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

nice! we are also reminded of Kittler's project to record the voices of the siren's song off of the greek coast.

he bases this on the siren's as being the origin of speech, of music.
http://www2.hum.uu.nl/nieuws/algemeen/090619AGcallforpapers.htm

July 13, 2009 10:56 AM  

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