The San Diego Fire Rescue department’s Metro Arson Strike Team (MAST) is still investigating the fires’ causes and notes someone starting one for warmth or to cook is not necessarily criminal, reports NBC 7’s Shandel Menezes.
After three brush fires broke out in three days last week around San Diego, housing advocates said they saw the situation coming and even warned the city council about the potential for just such a situation before the encampment ban went into effect last year.
“We said, ‘When you do this, this is where people are going to go, and fires are going to happen,’ ” said John Brady, Lived Experience Advisers' executive director.
Brady lived on the streets downtown and has lit a match or two himself.
“I did use a candle in my tent, to stay warm,” Brady said. “I made sure it was protected, but out there, you know, who knows what's happening?”
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The overnight hours leading to last week's fires were unseasonably cold temps sometimes dipping into the 30s.
“It was either a fire for warmth, could have been somebody smoking a cigarette that didn't get discarded appropriately, or a cooking fire,” Brady said.
MAST is still investigating how the fires started but notes that even if an encampment fire starts from something like cooking or trying to keep warm, it isn’t necessarily criminal.
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Regardless of motive, a fire’s end result is often property damage, power shutoffs, sweeping evacuations and people getting hurt — or worse.
Kimberly Leiker had to evacuate during the Friars Fire, which burned behind an apartment building across Friars Road from the Fashion Valley Mall.
“It’s just adrenaline pumping, because you never think it’ll happen to you,” Lake said.
Sandy McIntyre had to evacuate when a brush fire broke out in Rancho Bernardo.
“We were both just shaking and seeing the flames come closer and hoping that the airdrops would take care of it,” McIntyre, told NBC 7.
One of San Diego Fire Rescue's suggested defenses is an eco-friendly treatment spray for dry brush.
“It slows down the fire,” said Tony Tosca, SDFD Deputy Chief Fire Marshal. “You can take a blowtorch on it, and I don't see the embers casting with it.”
Tosca said his team pretreated six encampments so far but hadn’t yet gotten to any of the three camps that ignited last week.
Beyond pretreating and clearing defensible space, Tosca said he encourages anyone living outside to be careful around the brush.
“Propane use, barbecues, anything that would light a torch out there, we encourage them to go to a safer location,” Tosca said.
Brady said the areas where the fires happened isn't safe for people to be living in any way, but he doesn’t see encampment fires slowing until the housing crisis is resolved.
“Expedite getting people that are in our shelters and on our streets back into housing through shared housing programs, building affordable housing and, perhaps, enforcing our vacation rental laws so that there are not illegal vacation rentals that are still in place," were Brady's suggestions.
Tosca said SDFD sprays dry brush once every couple of weeks but is probably going to ramp up the sprays until at least March.
