Homeless encampments in Los Angeles are not just an image issue, but a public safety one, as a new report reveals the city struggles to maintain emergency response times.
Last year, there were 16,982 fires that the LA Fire Department marked as “homeless or encampment related,” according to recently analyzed data. That averages to 46 fires every day.
That number is a staggering jump from 2020, when the fire department logged only 7,165 fires, meaning encampment-related fires more than doubled in the last five years. The data evidently shows an upward trend since 2020, with each year seeing more fires than the previous.
The increases are a problem, because firefighters have warned that slower response times are due to rising call volumes plus chronic understaffing.
One fire station in south Los Angeles, for example, responded to 78 fires all due to one encampment beneath Harbor Freeway on King Boulevard. Ambulances had to be sent for each of those calls.
“These stations are busy as could be right now,” LAFD Battalion Chief Joel Purma told ABC7. “And to add all these additional calls, it’s definitely tough.”
Most homeless encampment fires usually are able to be snuffed out quickly, but a few recently have had enormous consequences.
In March, homeless squatters allegedly set fire to a house in central LA, destroying the family home next door — and killing their three sweet pups.
Husband and wife Juan Galicia, 55, and Marta Umana, 65, had repeatedly complained to the Los Angeles Police Department about the reckless squatters, they told The Post. But the police said the squatters couldn’t be arrested without any criminal record.
The couple placed the blame on Mayor Karen Bass.
“Karen Bass failed us. She failed our family. She failed thousands of families in the same situation because this happens every day in L.A.,” Salinas said. “We’ve seen several homes, businesses, people’s cars that end up being lit up by homeless people. It’s terrible.”
Other fires have led to the loss of human lives.
Last August, for example, firefighters found a trailer completely engulfed in flames at a homeless encampment. The remains of one person were found inside that trailer.
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