DETROIT (AP) - Fire department officials say Detroit has seen a dramatic decline in the number of fires over the last five years, which they credit to the city's aggressive blight elimination, bolstered arson investigations and community education efforts. The Detroit News reports that fire department data show the average number of Detroit structure fires annually has dropped by 42 percent since 2014. But the fire union's president, Mike Nevin, is questioning the department's data, claiming that officials are omitting structures and separating fires into categories to skew the numbers. The newspaper's analysis of structure fire rates in other large Midwestern cities found that Detroit daily average outpaces them by more than three times. Nevin says the city has far to go, and is inadequately staffed to fight the fires. --- Information from: The Detroit News, http://detnews.com/