Roger
Photo by Laura W.
Update by edhat staff
8:30 p.m., December 17, 2019
A tree fire broke out around 5:30 p.m. Thursday near the Highway 101 Milpas Street offramp, as reported by Roger the Scanner Guy.
Santa Barbara City firefighters responded and were able to calm the flames within ten minutes.
The fire was close to a large building, Tile Co., but reports state the building was not damaged. A large homeless camp was also reported nearby but an official cause has not been determined.
Traffic was affected in the area while firefighters were on the scene.
Video by Laura W.
Reported by Roger the Scanner Guy
5:31 p.m., December 17, 2019
Several trees on fire along Highway 101 Southbound at the Milpas offramp.
Vagrant camps are a health and safety hazard. Prohibit them everywhere in the city boundaries.
This is insane….we have year round fire weather now…it is cold now…but it seems to always be a homeless encampment…any weather….
This did not used to happen….There has always been Homeless Folks here.
Fires can burn in any type of weather…… today wasn’t fire weather….
Yeah, but now there’s a lot more and they are way more crazier/drugged out.
If TileCo’s building was damaged, who pays? Them? Their insurance? Definitely not the vagrants who caused it. They get off scott free. As I’ve said before, expect insurance premiums to go up and up as this happens more and more frequently and/or it becoming hard to get insurance to cover vagrant fires. If anyone is going to sue the City it should the insurance carriers via subrogation claims for damaged caused by unchecked vagrancy.
Nothing to do with fire weather lol, all to do with irresponsible fire makers…
Caltrans is removing a lot of landscaping along the SB area 101 due to homeless encampments. These people are living along the freeway and the railroad tracks in full view of the public. Why are they allowed to do this. SB residents need to protest vigorously. Perhaps march on to the 101 and stop traffic on a daily basis until the powers that be develop and execute a plan to remove ALL homeless camps. If I was an insurer, I would not insure any home or business along the 101 due to ongoing fire hazards.
Our community’s health and safety needs usurp the rights of the individuals to camp where they please. Its unfortunate that we have such weak leaders. Our mayor being among the weakest in the state doesnt help resolve this or anything for that matter… If we had a capable, strong leader, they’d be out front of this issue and working hard to clear these dangers from our community. But not our Mayor Murillo, she’s too busy trying to get her next job to do the most basic duties. One thing is for sure, she has proven herself to be a true noodle-brained, bureaucratic, do-nothing, shill.
August there was a fire in the same spot101 & Milpas.
Sat Dec 14, “ Large Hazardous camp 211 West Gutierrez ongoing issues reporting party concerned about warming fires. I guess the homeless have been allowed back to the camp after it was cleaned out?”
This is where the large encampment fire was in Oct that almost burned homes down.
Fri Dec 13, “ Small amount of smoke seen Highway 101 Southbound just South of the Fairview off ramp.”
When will the City/County stop wasting hundreds of thousands and years researching why people are homeless.
How about putting that time and money towards temporary shelters on land in the County. Like Santa Cruz with sanctioned tent cities.
City Start doing something! The City should be sued for knowing of these dangerous situations and failing to protect people. They are negligent and ignoring their duty to handle known dangerous situations.
Everyone sued Edison for fires, sue the City! That will send a message that people are tired. Homeless are tired of having to live in the bushes looking for safe places, trying to stay warm over the Winter. The public is tired of all the Scanner reports and exasperated at the lack of action from the City/County. This is a government issue to take care of those that cannot do so.
Everyone should be emailing the Mayor & City Council every week and especially after these incidents like I do. We need more people to stand up and have our government work for us .
Homelessness is a gigantic problem all over CA and the entire USA. Blaming the local mayor is pointless. Focus on solutions.
Unhelpful and misguided to blame any local mayor for a gigantic problem that is nationwide.
So this what solutions do you (SBO) propose for the problem? More housing for the homeless? Hostels in different neighborhoods to share the burden? Better mental health resources including locked care facilities? Tax money to pay for the above? No, I suspect with some perspective, that you would simply advocate harsh penalties as though you could drive the problem out of town and pretend the national issue has bypassed SB. By the way, the only penalty that would work is probably incarceration which is a lot more expensive than housing. As a taxpayer I would prefer the latter.
Tileco Building was damaged by this vagrant-set fire. The local business/industrial part of our town now under imminent threat, just like all our parks and public spaces. Finally the private industry sector will demand action to combat vagrancy, that the city itself has refused and even accomodates.
Factotum: Such camps are already “prohibited” in SB City boundaries. Citations can be issued. Also the RR comes in and cleans them out regularly. What effect has that had? Pull your head out of the sand and propose some real solutions such as actually providing safe shelter housing and care up and down the South Coast to share the problem.
Stop aiding the homeless that want to remain homeless and they will seek greener pastures and move on… simple.
It is not a small municipalities responsibility to care for or house any people. Period. It is however, the city’s responsibility to assure the safety and welfare of the community at large. So my solution is to enforce the laws and assure that there are NO encampments anywhere in the city or county’s jurisdiction. Period. As for who should offer these services: The private sector and specifically churches who are granted tax free status and have billions up on billions in assets should pony up to pay for the services that THEY feel are necessary. Again, its not the city’s responsibility. How that became the norm is a big reason why our city’s is on the edge of insolvency and our taxes and fees are among the highest in the country. There is no right to live where you want, how you want. The public lands are open and if people want to be free, live in the open and camp, they can go into the Natl Forest or BLM land where. They are not however, allowed to camp, or more importantly, setup camp anywhere they choose especially when it puts the health and safety of the community in harms way.
There have been hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on research and action plans over the last 40 years. Most of the funding for homeless goes towards research or staff to walk the streets looking for homeless. A small fraction has gone towards providing shelters as evidenced by the serious lack of sufficient shelters.
At no point in time during those 50 years of “talking & researching” has the City/County ever put enough into helping homeless who need help and start enforcing all laws.
Mayor Murillo was a chair on the C3H committee, no progress.
Blame the Mayor and City Council, they have not done enough. Murillo has been on City Council and Mayor for a decade with no significant progress.
It is the government that needs to address this, not citizens.
Stop researching and put the money towards temporary shelters, sanctioned tent cities on government land in the county.
Get them to safety and warmth and help the rest of the public and save millions in services provided enabling homelessness.
Soon to be former councilmember Dominguez has tried for several years to get the council to do something about the homeless situation; the mayor has refused. Perhaps now that he is off the council (in large part thanks to her efforts), she will come up with something so as to take credit for it in her next run for Assembly. What’s needed, especially because of the recent USSCt non-decision in the Boise case, are more shelter beds. Without such beds, those homeless may sleep on public property.
Unfortunately (or not, depending on one’s viewpoint) it is the city’s responsibility to provide “shelter” or allow people to camp on most public land. See the recent Supreme Ct decision in the Boise case, a non-decision that allowed the recent 9th Circuit decision to stand.