SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Fires are burning more frequently and at a greater intensity than ever before in the American River Parkway area, according to a new report from an environmental group.
A report from April 2022 by the Sacramento Sierra Club says that in six years, the Sacramento Fire Department responded to 536 fires along the parkway. The number of fires in the region increased rapidly in recent years, up to 156 in 2021 – three times as many as in 2019.
These fires pose a risk to high traffic areas near the parkway such as Sacramento State, Garden Highway, Sutter’s Landing, Lake Natomas and office, residential and retail buildings, the report said.
Sierra Club said linked homeless encampments along the parkway to the frequency of fires in the area where cigarettes, campfires and stoves provide ignition. According to the report, the north side of the American River accounts for 90% of the fires in the parkway area.
"I think it's a prime location because people can be away from neighborhoods or major streets and feel that they're not being either assaulted or looked down upon," said Barbara Leary, chair of the Sacramento Sierra Club.
The organization said the city of Sacramento failing to provide housing and failing to effectively deal with the homeless crisis has resulted in "unprecedented environmental destruction." As a result, they say massive amounts of garbage, water pollution and wildfire have destroyed much of the region’s plant and wildlife.
"We are hoping that the city and county can work together in increasing safe spaces for people to live so that they can be relocated away from the river," Leary said. "We're also hoping that they'll come up with some more permanent housing so that people don't transition to a temporary spot and then be put back out on the Streets or along the river."
However, the environmental impact from the homeless population is not the only factor accounting for increasing wildfires across the region. Sierra Club said that climate change has become a considerable threat to the area amid increasing temperatures and a statewide drought.
A 2016 report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency explains that trapped greenhouse gasses have created warmer surface temperatures and lower atmosphere on the planet affecting humidity, water availability and average rainfall.
Subsequently, regions with drier climates such as California, have seen an increase in wildfires across the state.
According to the EPA on average, 4% of the land in California has burned per decade since 1984 resulting in poor air quality, human health impacts and billions of dollars in property damage each year.
Along with the region’s homeless epidemic, the growing increase in wildfires in the Sacramento region has been a direct result of globalized climate change as environmental experts suggest.
ABC10 reached out to the Sacramento Fire Department to confirm the numbers shared in data reported by Sierra Club, but the inquiry was not immediately returned.
"We don't want people just kicked off the Parkway with nowhere to go, that is not our hope," Leary said. "My hope is there could be more safe spaces or shelters for people to go to."
WATCH ALSO:
