This is my reply to Carissa Ashley Tedesco’s post on the Venice Community FB page:
“They just announced that the Skirball fire was caused by
an illegal cooking fire at a homeless encampment. Venice would’ve been burned
down 1000 times over if we had trees and brush. All those devastated lives. It
just enrages me.”
Carissa, thank you for your original post. The City has been aware
of the potential for such a fire for years but has not brought the resources to
bare to prevent it. A year or two ago we saw a fire in the Palisades Bluffs
started from a homeless encampment. Fortunately, there was little wind and the
LAFD was on it quickly and kept it from coming up the bluffs and igniting the
homes atop the bluff. Since then there has been some attention to keeping
people from living in the bluffs and canyons but not at zero tolerance level,
which is what is needed. Garcetti was rather glib, saying that the City
just could not protect against every eventuality, in effect saying that it was
OK with him for residents to live with the risk of the loss of their homes and
possibly their lives. This is not to mention the high cost to the City from
such a fire as we just saw in Bel Air. We have seen the danger here in Venice,
too. Last year a homeless woman lit a fire in a dumpster behind the St. Joseph
Center's drop-in center on Lincoln. The fire spread and the smoke engulfed the
house next to the alley. The pregnant resident was told by the EMT's that for
her health and the health of her unborn child that she must evacuate the house for
several days to avoid the smoke. Residents near the center have long requested 24-hour
security because the homeless do not leave the area when the center closes for
the evening. Of course, St. Joseph's has never responded. The City's acceptance
of homeless encampments next to residences is perverse. Rick Swinger's proposal
to establish camps of high-quality tents, with adjoining toilets and showers,
on public land at some set-back from residences and businesses, with constant
social service presence, is long overdue. Along with daily removal of campers
from public lands which are at risk for fire. Measure H will produce $335
million a year for services. The County should spend a percentage on rapid
housing, including motel vouchers, family reunification and high-quality tents
on platforms, like Rick has proposed. Accepting the fire risk, as Garcetti and Bonin
do, is grossly irresponsible.
