Wildfire Season Runs Year-Round in San Francisco.

Fires at homeless encampments and fires set by mentally ill and drug addicts, who can’t make rational decisions, around the city as featured in this tweet are worrisome for housed San Franciscans.

These are a few more examples of wildfires in the city:

I reached out to San Francisco’s city officials and the media to raise awareness after a series of recent fires In and Around The Tenderloin.

So, when I saw on the news about the August 1st fire at the construction site at Octavia and Oak, it crossed my mind that the fire might be started by homeless people who I frequently saw camp around the construction site.

The cause of that fire is still under investigation and we shouldn’t jump into any conclusion.

But Hayes Valley residents and merchants had been worried about a series of fires around that construction site.

I visited the construction fire site in Hayes Valley the day after the fire.

As I was taking pictures at the fire site, a woman approached and stood silently beside me, gazing at the burned-down building.

I struck up a conversation with her.

I said to her I could imagine how devastated the owner of the building is and frightened the residents around it were.

She then identified herself as Maggie, the owner of the burned-down building.

She mentioned that homeless people often got into the building and had fires.

The firefighters had responded to several fire incidents inside and around the building before.

As we were chatting, reporters came over, expressed their condolences, and asked her for comments on the fire.

She declined to comment.

Whatever the cause of that fire turns out to be, San Franciscans are already long frustrated with encampment fires that have run wild in the city and want to hold city officials accountable for them.

It is a safety issue.

There is a Federal injunction in place for sweeping homeless encampments in the city but the injunction does not prevent the city from clearing encampments that pose a danger to public safety such as fires.

There had been a series of encampment fires on Larch between Van Ness and Franklin within 4 months.

And right around the corner from Larch, at 799 Van Ness at Eddy, tents, drug dealing, and drug use are out of control.

The owners of the building at 725 Van Ness Ave who sued the city in the US District Court Northern District on June 26, 2020, over a homeless encampment on Larch Street between Van Ness and Franklin are now selling their building.

 

As I was taking photos in front of 725 and 799 Van Ness Ave, I overheard an 8-year-old boy, who just waded his way through drug dealers and users in front of 799 Van Ness Ave with his dad, ask him why the sidewalk smelled so bad.

His dad responded, “That’s what misery smells like, son.”

Sad state of affairs.

Filed under: San Francisco News