SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — As fire season approaches, officials in San Bernardino County are taking steps to protect their community.

Deputy Mike Jones, with the sheriff departments homeless outreach program, is working with his team to get some of the county’s unhoused population out of danger zones like the mountains surrounding Wildwood Park.

Deputy Jones said homeless residents set up camps in the mountains to be more secluded from residential areas.

“It’s easier for them to stay out of the sight of the community because it creates less calls,” he said.

The areas are made up of easy to burn brush, making them even more susceptible to wildfires. Residents nearby are also concerned about the use of open flames in these camp sites.

The San Bernardino homeless outreach program has had success in their work. They have housed 20% of the residents they interact with, according to data from the department. Their work has helped residents like Jerome Doering, who was living in the mountains just a few years ago. He was suffering from cataracts, which left him blind.

The homeless outreach team helped him find housing and a surgeon to repair his eyesight.

“It was a life changer to get me off the streets,” Doering said.

Doering found himself in a dark depression after his wife died of kidney failure. He wanted to isolate from society and lived in an encampment in the mountains.

He was satisfied living there until a wildfire tore through his camp.

“Just because you don’t see that danger day-to-day while you’re out there sleeping under a bush or if you’ve got a tent up there, the danger is there,” Doering said.

Deputy Jones said working with people like Doering makes the outreach worth it for him.