SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Video taken by Sacramento Metropolitan firefighters shows a building engulfed in flames, caused by homeless people inhabiting the unused building, the department said.
Revisiting the building and inspecting the structure, Capt. Parker Wilbourn said the department knows the location well.
“This building itself has burned three times this year,” Wilbourn said. “We’ve had upwards of half a dozen over the course of the last several years, fires just in this structure alone. By people essentially breaking in and occupying these spaces illegally.”
Wilbourn said the number of calls his department receives involving homeless people has been steadily increasing over the past few years, which he said is stretching resources.
So far this year, he said they’ve received more than 5,500 calls involving homeless people.
“So year-over-year we’ve seen almost a 19% increase in call volume in the homeless community,” Wilbourn said. “That being fires, medical aid or any other related incidents, and that’s challenging for our fire crews because as those crews are going on calls, they’re not then available for the public if they’re having an emergency.”
The state capital has seen its homeless population triple since 2017 to over 9,000 at the last point in time count.
Wilbourn said it’s not just homeless people in abandoned buildings testing out the department’s resources.
“People camping in the vegetation, it’s a challenge for us because, just on the vegetation side, you’ve got people living in the fields that burn,” he said. “And so we’re finding our resources having to come in and actually do searches in these camps where they would normally just be focused on fighting the fire. We’re working on getting those people out of harm’s way and normally a decade, two decades ago, we weren’t having to deal with that as much as we are now.”
Advocacy groups believe homeless people in encampments should be trained on equipment such as fire extinguishers to help reduce the need for fire officials, according to Anthony Prince, the lead organizer for the Sacramento Homeless Union.
“At various encampments that there be firefighting training,” Prince said. “That there be connections to available water to run hoses, just like there are fire hydrants all over the city.”
The real problem, Prince said, is remedying the housing issue, offering several suggestions.
“Housing could be built tomorrow,” said Prince, referring to module homes. “And there’s vacant units standing empty right now. Tax delinquent properties, foreclosed homes, vacant apartment units.”
As far as training homeless people on fire equipment, Wilbourn said he worries about handing out fire extinguishers.
“With the fire extinguishers, that’s not a one and done,” Wilbourn said. “Those have expirations. You have to maintain those fire extinguishers to make sure they’re up to the proper pressure.”
Wilburn said they’re open to and hopeful of solutions, as two days after the interview with Spectrum News he said they were once again called out to the same abandoned building.