In California, fires have always been a hot-button issue. But bad forest management has taken a backseat to bad city management, as California’s blazes have moved from the trees to the streets.
A fire recently burst up from the homeless encampments below a freeway and a BART track in Oakland, California, after multiple RVs below them caught fire. Two hours and 65 firefighters later, the fire was finally under control, though several roads were backed up and Caltrans had to inspect the train trestles to allow it to operate in the meantime.
Homeless fires have recently popped up in nearly all of California’s major cities and counties. Sacramento County has dealt with multiple homeless fires, including two on the same day: one under power lines and one that burned five acres of vegetation. In February, a group of homeless people ended up trapped in a crawl space trying to escape a 40-degree night in San Francisco. A warming fire under the overpass ended up killing one and leaving three others in critical condition.
The Los Angeles Fire Department said in June that crews were responding to dozens of homeless fires every day. Around 54% of the fires LAFD was responding to for a chunk of the summer were homeless fires. In downtown Los Angeles, that number was 80%, with businesses often caught up in the blazes.
It’s a problem that Smokey the Bear could not have foreseen. California Democrats have struggled to keep forest fires under control, but a spiraling homelessness crisis has opened up cities to the same issue. The bluest of blue states is burning no matter the location, but it hasn’t sparked a solution from state leaders yet.
