I smelled the smoke at about 11:15 a.m. yesterday morning, that acrid, sickening stench of burning wood. It was the strongest fire-smoke I’d smelled since before the pandemic: it was really hard to breathe, so I put on my mask.
I immediately assumed the smoke was from the big Yosemite fire. But something was wrong. The sky was completely clear, that wonderful, saturated azure blue we get in Oakland when the fog burns off. If the smoke was really coming from Yosemite, 160 miles away, the sky would have been hazy with particulate matter. But the smoke wasn’t coming from Yosemite. Its source was much closer: the horrible Wood Street Encampment, a mere 2-1/2 miles from my home.
It was a big fire. A black plume of smoke filled the sky, drifting slowly east toward downtown and Lake Merritt under the prevailing winds. According to the Oakland Fire Department, “Multiple cars, debris and RVs burned in the blaze.” The California Highway Patrol had to stop traffic on the I-880 freeway, while CalTrans examined the road for structural problems. Thousands of commuters were stalled. The fire ignited “hazardous materials” from creosote-soaked wood, propane and acetylene, and also sparked “several explosions.” The site is just across the street from a neighborhood of single-family homes. At least 65 firefighters were diverted from other activities to fight the inferno.
These fires are increasingly common at encampments in Oakland. Wood Street alone has had “over 90 [fires] in the 12 months that ended in March.”
We’re now coming into the heart of fire season, and Oakland officials had better start taking these dangerous encampments seriously. Who knows how many Oaklanders were affected by the toxic smoke? What if the winds had been fierce and spread the blaze to the nearby neighborhood and beyond? I’ve been warning about this for years. At some point, there’s going to be an encampment fire, and Red Flag conditions will blow it all over the place, just like happens in forest wildfires, and there will be hell to pay. (If you were around for the Oakland Hills Firestorm, in 1991, you know what I mean.) Will the public be able to sue the City of Oakland for allowing these fires at encampments?
I know that Oakland has been given $4.7 million by the State to clean up Wood Street, but I don’t believe it’s going to result in much. I’m sure that some cosmetic tinkering will be done, but that encampment is so vast, and the campers so insistent on remaining there, that we’re just going to see more of the same old Whack-a-mole: a few people leave, more come, and nothing really changes. What Oakland should do—assisted perhaps by the National Guard—is raze that mess to the ground, cart off all the junk to the dump, and if anyone dares to set up a new tent, send in OPD to dissemble it immediately. We really don’t need an inferno this summer because some stoned or drunk nincompoop started a fire.
I know that some people will think I’m uncaring and mean. “Oh, the homeless people need to cook, and heat their dwelling place.” But we’ve reached a point where it’s the safety and health of the entire city versus the “right” of someone to heat a can of soup over an open fire in the midst of an encampment, with all the flammable material it contains. If that person is stoned or drunk—which they often are--it makes the situation even more untenable. The Oakland Fire Department and the cops are going to have to get tough this summer; if they see an illegal fire in an encampment, immediately extinguish it and, if necessary, bring charges against the person who started it.
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Steve Heimoff