SACRAMENTO COUNTY, Calif. — Firefighters are bracing for fire season this year after months of rain caused lots of tall grass to grow across the area.
The Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District said there's been an uptick in fires started by the unhoused already. Firefighters are already transitioning into fire season, and a major part of that includes preparing for the unpredictable fires caused by the unhoused.
"Looking year over year, our arson investigations unit has seen a 111% increase in homeless or unsheltered-related incidents. Those are directly related to human-caused fires, so whether they're people cooking in those fields or trying to keep themselves warm in the evening," said Capt. Parker Wilbourn with the fire district.
Wilbourn said it only takes a very small spark to start a very large fire, especially with all the debris and trash that accumulates in encampments.
It can quickly spread to homes and businesses in the area.
Commander David Spencer, with the Sacramento County Regional Park Rangers, said the homeless cause a large amount of their grassfires in the throughout the summer.
"We had over, I believe, well over 100 grass fires along the American River Parkway," said Spencer.
Sacramento County Regional Park Rangers are working with Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District to prevent or mitigate some of these fires before they get out of hand.
"We do have park ranger assistants that are assigned to what we call a fire watch, where their main patrol is just up and down the entire river looking for any smoke. If they see smoke, they'll report it to our rangers," said Spencer.
Two arson investigators are assigned to the team, and they partner with fire investigators to determine where the fires are coming from.
According to Wilbourn, they're still expecting challenges with what he calls preventable fires.
"When our resources are set up on those incidents, they're then not available in their first-hand district. So, if there's is somebody that is having a cardiac arrest or stroke or their house catches on fire, there's going to be a lag time for the next closest resource to assist with that emergency," said Wilbourn.
Rangers are taking the proactive approach of talking to the people who live out here.
Sacramento Metropolitan Fire is also up-staffing resources like their dozer and helicopter programs to help them ahead of fire season as they prepare.
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