A home burns on Detroit's east side on Tuesday. (Marcin Szczepanski/Detroit Free Press/Associated Press)

Powerful winds helped spread a rash of fires in Detroit on Tuesday night, leaving firefighters scrambling to cope with the blazes.

There were at least 85 fires to put out, two dozen of them within several blocks of each other on the city's east side.

Winds gusting to 80 kilometres an hour fanned the flames through three neighbourhoods. The winds toppled power lines across the city and knocked out service to at least 113,000 Michigan homes and businesses.

Some of the fires might have been sparked by dead tree limbs falling onto power lines, the Detroit fire department said.

The department was stretched so thin, it couldn't attend to all the fires simultaneously.

No injuries were reported.

On the Canadian side of the border, the Windsor fire department said it had a relatively tranquil evening, with only a couple of garbage fires.

With files from The Associated Press