Fresno councilmember sees danger in warming fires set by the homeless. He’s right | Opinion

Early in his first term Mayor Jerry Dyer said he would relocate homeless people from camping along Fresno’s freeways.

The strategy was the right one: Several homeless people trying to cross freeways in the dark were struck and killed by unsuspecting motorists.

Yet there is a different danger also involving unhoused people: warming fires. These are blazes that homeless people light on streets, sidewalks, wherever they are camping. Sometimes the blazes burn in barrels or trash cans; sometimes they are lit next to a wall.

Such blazes occur every night in Fresno during fall and winter months, says Miguel Arias, the city councilmember who represents west Fresno, the downtown and part of the Tower District.

He contends that firefighters respond if they are called, and their practice has been to let the fire burn if it does not threaten a structure or look like it will spread. For example, if a fire is lit in a trash can that is in the middle of the street.

Arias’ Third District also is home to motels that have been converted into housing for homeless people, as well as community centers that get used as warming shelters in the winter and cooling centers in the summer specifically to benefit the unhoused.

“I cannot convince my neighborhoods to embrace warming shelters, emergency shelters and hotel conversions if we allow warming fires and the wild, wild west to occur in their surrounding area,” he said in an interview.

He said that City Manager Georgeanne White has recently directed the Fire Department to put out blazes they get alerted to. That would be consistent with Fresno’s city code that says open fires are not allowed without a permit. But fires used for cooking are exempt, a provision that some homeless people have used to their advantage.

Arias has asked Fire Chief Billy Alcorn for a policy defining a cooking fire. The policy is to come before the council at its April 18 meeting.

White told The Bee Editorial Board that firefighters have responded to more than 900 warming fires so far this year, a total that includes those set for cooking and burning trash. Last year there were 3,797 warming fires; the year before was 4,079.

Fires set by upset unhoused people

In an email to Arias, Alcorn outlined the challenges firefighters have in dealing with warming fires. It can become a real-life game of Whac-A-Mole.

“One of the challenges that we have experienced, specifically in the downtown area (near Station 3) is the aggressive nature that many of these individuals present when they are asked to extinguish these fires or we extinguish them,” Alcorn wrote. “Our crews have tried to establish a rapport with these individuals and educate them on the hazards associated with having a warming fire near an exposure (a building, tent, or vegetation).

“Unfortunately, many of them get upset when their fire is extinguished, and within a few hours we have run 5 or more debris fires that are usually set by upset individuals.”

But absent any effort to put out such fires, “you are letting arsonists be arsonists,” Arias said.

He said fires don’t end when the weather warms up, but continue into the summer. Sometimes fires are set by thieves who have stolen electrical wiring and want to burn off the conduit before taking copper to a recycling center to get cash, which then can be used to buy drugs.

Trees that were planted by the city on Santa Clara Street downtown have been ripped apart so the wood could be used as kindling, he said. Outdoor furniture gets stolen from the backyards of private residences for the same purpose.

Sometimes fires are set inside a vacant building. A former church in the 1500 block of Olive Avenue sustained three fires before it had to be demolished. It has cost $500,000 and taken two years to clean up the site, Arias said.

Arias has witnessed some people having a fire outside a city shelter that was open as a warming refuge and was less than half full. These individuals want to live in the open with no rules, Arias said.

Clamping down is right step

How to deal with warming fires is yet another aspect of the complex problem of homelessness. But as approval of Proposition 1 this month has shown, a majority of Californians believe changes must be made in how state and local officials deal with homeless people.

Clamping down on dangerous, uncontrolled fires is the right move when good alternatives for help like warming centers exist. Fires can easily turn into disasters, with people hurt and lives lost.

Much like moving homeless people from sleeping alongside freeways, getting a handle on illegal fires is for everyone’s benefit.