Melodi
Disaster Cat
I suspect that if the Cities in the LA area don't sort this one way or another, nature will sort it for them during the next bad fire season. The Oakland Hills Fire Storm was probably started by homeless people trying to keep warm, they even tried to do the right thing and put it out but it smoldered and burned down most of the Berkeley-Oakland Hills the next day. The Santa Anna winds usually blow in October, the cities had better get creative before then or this is just a matter of time and the firestorm may not only "solve" the homeless problem but take a good chunk of the affected cities with it. - Melodi (photos at the link)
Part 1
24 fires a day: Surge in flames at L.A. homeless encampments a growing crisis
Doug Smith, James Queally, Genaro Molina
Wed, May 12, 2021, 1:00 PM·17 min read
VENICE, CA - APRIL 21, 2021 - - Pediatrician Courtney Gillenwater, facing, receives a hug of support from Brian Averill, with Venice Boardwalk Action Committee, in front of her fire damaged home at 31 E. Clubhouse Avenue in Venice on April 21, 2021. The fire is under investigation but residents in the neighborhood believe it may have been set by new homeless in the area. Gillenwater's dog Togo died in the fire. Gillenwater is familiar with the homeless in the area and has been able to get along even bringing them water and food from time to time. But there were new homeless in the area that were not as receptive. The fire started around 3 a.m. Wednesday according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. Arson investigators were on the scene trying to determine the cause of the fire. Residents and neighbors have been having problems with some of the homeless in the area. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Pediatrician Courtney Gillenwater, right, receives a hug in front of her fire-damaged home in Venice. The fire is under investigation, but residents in the neighborhood believe it may have been set by homeless people in the area. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
The fire began at 3 a.m., quickly destroying the clapboard bungalow two blocks from Venice Beach. The tenant was away for the night, but her dog, Togo, succumbed after his howls of panic and pain left helpless neighbors with a memory they can’t forget.
While arson investigators have yet to determine a cause in the April 20 blaze, traumatized neighbors quickly linked it to a rash of fires in Venice’s growing homeless camps.
“We may never know for sure what happened,” next-door neighbor Francesca Padilla wrote in an impassioned email to dozens of city officials. “What we know for sure is that around my home and the school across the street from it there are people cooking on sidewalks and RV kitchenettes, burning fires to keep warm, using generators for electricity, living out of their cars, smoking and using drugs in makeshift shacks and tents.”
The angst in Venice is part of a widening tableau of fear, anger and tragedy that has become an everyday consequence of homelessness across Los Angeles.
As the number of tents, makeshift shelters and campers on Los Angeles streets has surged, so has the scourge of fire. In the three years since the Los Angeles Fire Department began classifying them, fires related to homelessness have nearly tripled. In the first quarter of 2021, they occurred at a rate of 24 a day, making up 54% of all fires the department responded to.
A man stands with his arms out as other people confront him near tents
A homeless man tries to defend himself after other homeless people accuse him of possibly starting a fire that destroyed a home and killed a dog in Venice. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Many of the fires are limited to dumpsters and piles of trash, and the most common outcome is the destruction of tents or other shelter. A few are costly and tragic. Seven homeless people died in fires in 2020. Fires starting in camps lined beside businesses have caused tens of millions of dollars in damage, according to the Fire Department.
The epidemic of fires is largely attributable to the built-in conditions for combustion in street camps — cooking stoves and campfires in close proximity to tent fabric and piles of other flammable material. But social stress is also a factor: A third of the 15,610 fires related to homelessness in the past 3 ¼ years were classified as arson.
Impossible to quantify is the dread, hostility and loss of faith in government brought on by the surge in fires. Business owners are left wondering if a random blaze will scar or destroy their property. For homeless people, the fear is much starker, as a fire could swallow up what little they have left.
Activists and unhoused people have questioned the city’s commitment to solving the issue. At several encampments, The Times spoke to residents who said L.A. firefighters asked few, if any, questions when responding to blazes with unknown causes.
Mel Tillekeratne, the founder of a mobile shower program that aids encampments throughout L.A. County, said the city’s inability to stem the fires reflects most Angelenos’ indifference
A man stands next to tents on the side of a building
Daniel Bahena, who is homeless, stands near the site where a recent fire burned down tents, including his own, in Koreatown on April 23. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
He pointed to photos of a massive plume of black smoke and bright orange flame swallowing entire sections of an encampment at 6th and Berendo streets in Koreatown, the site of repeated fires in recent weeks.
“If it was happening to a different demographic, it would be viewed differently,” Tillekeratne said. “Unfortunately, when it’s a person sleeping in a tent, it doesn’t count as a human being.”
Property owners whose buildings have been threatened by fire also complain of neglect by the city.
“What is it going to take for the City to start protecting the taxpaying businesses in your district?” Mitch Blumenfeld, the chief operating officer of Acme Display Fixture Co. emailed Councilman Curren Price in February, a day after a fire classified as homelessness-related reduced a nearby brick building to rubble.
A man on a bike near tents next to a building
Chato Montes near his tent on the sidewalk next to the Acme Display Fixture Co. building in Los Angeles. Fires at homeless encampments along the sidewalk have scarred the side of the building. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Tents attached to Acme’s block-long building on Broadway south of downtown have been the source of six fires that have scorched its walls and pitted the bricks, most recently in March.
Blumenfeld wanted to install a sprinkler system that would water the roof and the sidewalk in case of fire, but said his contractor advised him that the plan would not pass city code.
“WHEN IS SOMETHING GOING TO BE DONE?” he wrote.
It’s a question city officials cannot answer.
The rising incidence of fire further exacerbates the city’s dilemma in balancing residents’ security and quality of life with the constitutional rights of those who have no home.
In response to questions from The Times, Jose "Che" Ramirez, deputy mayor for city homelessness initiatives, said that “years of litigation and a growing number of court injunctions have significantly limited the City’s legal right to dismantle unsafe structures, or enter encampments to remove the hazardous items causing many of these fires."
Ramirez said he now favors resumptions of the cleanups that "enabled us to identify and address threats to public health and safety" before being curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Two workers pull a couch from a blue tent
Work crews pull a couch from a tent left behind by a homeless person during a cleanup at Echo Park Lake in March. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
In a few high-profile actions, the city has removed large encampments from public property after offering those living in them alternative shelter. But a court ruling that has been upheld by the Supreme Court holds that homeless people have a constitutional right to camp on sidewalks if the city cannot provide an alternative place to live.
A case being heard in federal court in Los Angeles is probing a key question left open in that ruling: How many shelter beds would the city have to provide to begin enforcing its anti-camping laws at hundreds of locations around the city? At the least it would be thousands, and the timetable remains unknown.
Fire officials say they combat the problem as best they can by sending teams from all 106 fire stations to look for hazards, including in homeless camps, and address any they find. But they have no authority to prohibit essential activities such as cooking, and they have too few resources to inspect every camp.
Those who work to better the lives of homeless people say the surge in blazes has its most devastating effects on homeless people themselves.
“It takes a toll,” said Justin Szlasa, an organizer with the nonprofit SELAH collaborative. Homeless fire victims lose “literally everything that they’ve had with them on the street, which includes where they’re sleeping, their clothes, often documents that are necessary to access services.”
24 fires a day: Surge in flames at L.A. homeless encampments a growing crisis
In the three years since the Los Angeles Fire Department began tracking them, fires related to homeless camps have more than doubled.
news.yahoo.com
Part 1
24 fires a day: Surge in flames at L.A. homeless encampments a growing crisis
Doug Smith, James Queally, Genaro Molina
Wed, May 12, 2021, 1:00 PM·17 min read
VENICE, CA - APRIL 21, 2021 - - Pediatrician Courtney Gillenwater, facing, receives a hug of support from Brian Averill, with Venice Boardwalk Action Committee, in front of her fire damaged home at 31 E. Clubhouse Avenue in Venice on April 21, 2021. The fire is under investigation but residents in the neighborhood believe it may have been set by new homeless in the area. Gillenwater's dog Togo died in the fire. Gillenwater is familiar with the homeless in the area and has been able to get along even bringing them water and food from time to time. But there were new homeless in the area that were not as receptive. The fire started around 3 a.m. Wednesday according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. Arson investigators were on the scene trying to determine the cause of the fire. Residents and neighbors have been having problems with some of the homeless in the area. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Pediatrician Courtney Gillenwater, right, receives a hug in front of her fire-damaged home in Venice. The fire is under investigation, but residents in the neighborhood believe it may have been set by homeless people in the area. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
The fire began at 3 a.m., quickly destroying the clapboard bungalow two blocks from Venice Beach. The tenant was away for the night, but her dog, Togo, succumbed after his howls of panic and pain left helpless neighbors with a memory they can’t forget.
While arson investigators have yet to determine a cause in the April 20 blaze, traumatized neighbors quickly linked it to a rash of fires in Venice’s growing homeless camps.
“We may never know for sure what happened,” next-door neighbor Francesca Padilla wrote in an impassioned email to dozens of city officials. “What we know for sure is that around my home and the school across the street from it there are people cooking on sidewalks and RV kitchenettes, burning fires to keep warm, using generators for electricity, living out of their cars, smoking and using drugs in makeshift shacks and tents.”
The angst in Venice is part of a widening tableau of fear, anger and tragedy that has become an everyday consequence of homelessness across Los Angeles.
As the number of tents, makeshift shelters and campers on Los Angeles streets has surged, so has the scourge of fire. In the three years since the Los Angeles Fire Department began classifying them, fires related to homelessness have nearly tripled. In the first quarter of 2021, they occurred at a rate of 24 a day, making up 54% of all fires the department responded to.
A man stands with his arms out as other people confront him near tents
A homeless man tries to defend himself after other homeless people accuse him of possibly starting a fire that destroyed a home and killed a dog in Venice. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Many of the fires are limited to dumpsters and piles of trash, and the most common outcome is the destruction of tents or other shelter. A few are costly and tragic. Seven homeless people died in fires in 2020. Fires starting in camps lined beside businesses have caused tens of millions of dollars in damage, according to the Fire Department.
The epidemic of fires is largely attributable to the built-in conditions for combustion in street camps — cooking stoves and campfires in close proximity to tent fabric and piles of other flammable material. But social stress is also a factor: A third of the 15,610 fires related to homelessness in the past 3 ¼ years were classified as arson.
Impossible to quantify is the dread, hostility and loss of faith in government brought on by the surge in fires. Business owners are left wondering if a random blaze will scar or destroy their property. For homeless people, the fear is much starker, as a fire could swallow up what little they have left.
Activists and unhoused people have questioned the city’s commitment to solving the issue. At several encampments, The Times spoke to residents who said L.A. firefighters asked few, if any, questions when responding to blazes with unknown causes.
Mel Tillekeratne, the founder of a mobile shower program that aids encampments throughout L.A. County, said the city’s inability to stem the fires reflects most Angelenos’ indifference
A man stands next to tents on the side of a building
Daniel Bahena, who is homeless, stands near the site where a recent fire burned down tents, including his own, in Koreatown on April 23. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
He pointed to photos of a massive plume of black smoke and bright orange flame swallowing entire sections of an encampment at 6th and Berendo streets in Koreatown, the site of repeated fires in recent weeks.
“If it was happening to a different demographic, it would be viewed differently,” Tillekeratne said. “Unfortunately, when it’s a person sleeping in a tent, it doesn’t count as a human being.”
Property owners whose buildings have been threatened by fire also complain of neglect by the city.
“What is it going to take for the City to start protecting the taxpaying businesses in your district?” Mitch Blumenfeld, the chief operating officer of Acme Display Fixture Co. emailed Councilman Curren Price in February, a day after a fire classified as homelessness-related reduced a nearby brick building to rubble.
A man on a bike near tents next to a building
Chato Montes near his tent on the sidewalk next to the Acme Display Fixture Co. building in Los Angeles. Fires at homeless encampments along the sidewalk have scarred the side of the building. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Tents attached to Acme’s block-long building on Broadway south of downtown have been the source of six fires that have scorched its walls and pitted the bricks, most recently in March.
Blumenfeld wanted to install a sprinkler system that would water the roof and the sidewalk in case of fire, but said his contractor advised him that the plan would not pass city code.
“WHEN IS SOMETHING GOING TO BE DONE?” he wrote.
It’s a question city officials cannot answer.
The rising incidence of fire further exacerbates the city’s dilemma in balancing residents’ security and quality of life with the constitutional rights of those who have no home.
In response to questions from The Times, Jose "Che" Ramirez, deputy mayor for city homelessness initiatives, said that “years of litigation and a growing number of court injunctions have significantly limited the City’s legal right to dismantle unsafe structures, or enter encampments to remove the hazardous items causing many of these fires."
Ramirez said he now favors resumptions of the cleanups that "enabled us to identify and address threats to public health and safety" before being curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Two workers pull a couch from a blue tent
Work crews pull a couch from a tent left behind by a homeless person during a cleanup at Echo Park Lake in March. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
In a few high-profile actions, the city has removed large encampments from public property after offering those living in them alternative shelter. But a court ruling that has been upheld by the Supreme Court holds that homeless people have a constitutional right to camp on sidewalks if the city cannot provide an alternative place to live.
A case being heard in federal court in Los Angeles is probing a key question left open in that ruling: How many shelter beds would the city have to provide to begin enforcing its anti-camping laws at hundreds of locations around the city? At the least it would be thousands, and the timetable remains unknown.
Fire officials say they combat the problem as best they can by sending teams from all 106 fire stations to look for hazards, including in homeless camps, and address any they find. But they have no authority to prohibit essential activities such as cooking, and they have too few resources to inspect every camp.
Those who work to better the lives of homeless people say the surge in blazes has its most devastating effects on homeless people themselves.
“It takes a toll,” said Justin Szlasa, an organizer with the nonprofit SELAH collaborative. Homeless fire victims lose “literally everything that they’ve had with them on the street, which includes where they’re sleeping, their clothes, often documents that are necessary to access services.”