[UPDATE Sunday] A Fire Burning on the North End of Redway; One Lane of Redwood Drive Blocked
A structure at the north end of Redway is on fire. [Photo provided by Redway Fire District Chief Brian Anderson.]
One lane of Redwood Drive is blocked, according to Redway Fire District Chief Brian Anderson. He believes this is a homeless structure.
“Fire is contained to one small outbuilding and no spread to the wildland,” he tells us. “[One] lane blocked for fire apparatus fighting the fire.”
Please remember that information gathered from initial reports is subject to revision as more facts become available.
UPDATE 11:35 p.m.: This photo by Luis Ruiz shows the flames reaching above the trees earlier.
Flames reaching above the trees. [Photo by Luis Ruiz]
UPDATE 11:39 p.m.: Cal Fire and Redway Fire District are on the scene fighting the fire. The California Highway Patrol and the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office is working traffic control.
UPDATE Sunday: All equipment is off the fire and Redwood Drive is fully open.
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This has to stop it is literally 300 yd from my house….. And this is about the 3rd fire this month from up there……homeless camp….
They’re setting each other’s places on fire.
That tree looked&sounded like it was going to torch up. So much thanks to the firefighters and the super fast response!!!! We are forever grateful for you!
We’re so lucky theres no wind or we’d be screwed.
Wouldnt it cost less to just open a shelter for night time?
Its 35° in Redway right now.
Regardless of your feelings about houseless folks, its costing us more to deal with these fires. And could cost a lot more!
For now let’s at least get a spot for folks to sleep. Then deal with how we get SF to stop bussing their “undesirables” to our area.
As always many thx to Kym!!!
The problem is even if you open a shelter not all will go because they don’t want to abide by the shelter rules. So it’s not that simple.
Yes it costs way less, the numbers have been run, look to Utah or respectable countries (Denmark, Sweden Etc) if we house people it’s way cheaper and safer for all. But the best part is that it is humane. What is happening now is not. These folks on our streets are often the most traumatized people who need support, not more abuse. The more abuse they get the uglier the situation for all.
In most cases local media (even those who claim to be progressive) are not helping with this dire human rights catastrophe either -If you try to simply report on Houseless issues and the abuses they endure for some media outlets in so hum, property owners pressure them with lawsuits and you loose your job. It’s complete ignorance, on the level of trump who is also against Houseless folks- see his comments on San Fran. How will we ever realize solutions if this isn’t discussed?
Opening a Shelter should not be the solution bc frankly it’s a bandaid and often the folks who do it are bias against the poor and those who genuinely want to help. Trust me I’ve volunteered and it was sickening how they treated people. Also the rules are too hard to abide by for people who normally live on their own. They have dogs, try to deal with poverty with substance use, they often don’t have ids, they don’t have cars to get there and going to bed by 9 is impossible when you work till 10. The list goes on and on. Humans need homes. It’s that simple.
choices
It such a simple solution- give them homes. Full of humanity. But just ask someone who gave a home to a drug addict or mentally ill person out of sympathy. Ask them about trash, fires, crime, violence, lack of respect. Anyone who is capable and willing to support themselves is never homeless for long. Pretending that chronic homeless people just need a hand is delusional. If a seriously mentally ill person is unlikely to chose restrictions and rules even if they are clearly the only way they will be housed. Drug addicts are unlikely to cooperate for more than an instant until they look for more of their drug.
First, involuntary mental health treatment needs to become a real possibility. Letting mentally ill people who have shown they will not cooperate make the decision is how we got here in the first place. “Deprivation of liberty introduced during psychiatric admissions formally classified as voluntary exists to a varying degree in the Nordic countries, resulting in a varying underestimation of coercion used.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3332811/ Then the same should be true for drug addiction.
The US has gone to virtually zero power over individuals when they are socially incapable. There has to be a better medium between puniative involuntary hospitalizations and virtual no involuntary hospitalizations. Until we can find that point, there is only going to be ineffectual harassing to protect the public. Mental illness should not be weaponized either to force it to be hidden nor should it protect from consequences.
I’ve been working my ass off my whole adult life to support myself. I haven’t had any kids yet, because I can’t afford them. Do I get a free house too?
Some day if you do end up sick or disabled, you just might. It’s called social security *Insurance*.
That is, if you can afford the house. If you can’t- you end up in the bushes. Or your car.
Many of the homeless work full time or nearly so. Those are the ones you would never ever guess that they are homeless. They don’t want you to know and have found ways to get showers etc.
It won’t work unless there is flexibility with their dogs. Maybe roofed kennels just for the dogs that won’t behave really well and would keep people from sleeping. Hell- let people sleep in the kennel with their dog if they really really want to. Some will want to. A roofed kennel structure would not cost much compared to a human structure; a raised surface, several runs of chain link and a carport type roof structure.
What people miss sometimes is that dogs can be a working member of the family. Keeping people warm, safe and secure. Especially so for many homeless people. We don’t think well of people who leave their pets out in the rain and cold or give them up out of convenience. Why should we expect those without homes to do so?
On the whole I think most homeless people’s dogs are better behaved than most people’s pet dogs. They have to be. They may be happier as well- they get to hang out with their humans more often.
That homeless camp needs to go now …..the cops need to make all of them get off that hill i saw the fire from my house
Good luck with that. Yesterday at the intersection of Redwood Drive and Sprowel Creek this local crazy bum was standing in the intersection pointing what I hope was a simulated handgun at cars as they were driving by. The Sheriff showed up and of course let him go.
People need homes! The Inhumanity in this community effects us all folks. Please explain what human beings are supposed to do to stay warm in this weather without a home…. a baby was just born here maybe they are trying to keep it warm. Have a heart!
Some folks do not want the traditional home, check out the movie “Leave No Trace” as its based on a true story about this that very situation. Thank you Redway Fire Dept. for saving Redway yet again.
Don’t let your heart paralyze your brain.
I’ll explain it to you since you can’t seem to figure it out. In this weather, homeless humans should sequester $5 from their daily meth/heroin habit, and take the bus to Eureka(a city near by with free food, shelter, clothing, and job acquisition help for homeless) and stay in a HOMELESS SHELTER! Squatting/trespassing in cold damp woods on private property outside a small community with little to no homeless resources is NOT what homeless humans should be doing in this cold weather. As for the people living in the woods saying this is their “home”, leave to a place with help and resources, get your feet back underneath you, come back and be a Contributing part of the community you call “home.”
I wish I was in Canada.
It’s not far.
The only safe and humane solution is a designated (& regulated) camp area for the homeless. Maybe the RedCross would help create one in Eureka and one in SoHum. Simple basic shower house & maybe a central yurt with a camp kitchen. Refugee camps exist around the world-unfortunate, but better than how it is here. Our County needs to create and manage “Safe Camps”. When the inevitable Big Quake happens, we will most likely need to mobilize into some form of central, cooperative gathering areas. For instance, Redway school, with its kitchen & flat areas for tents. And each zone with a school could be the mobilizing area for the surrounding community. In the meantime, we need immediate action by the County to make things safer for both the homeless and the non-homeless.
I agree. These are our brothers and sisters. The fact that they’re unable to live like the rest of us does not justify treating them like garbage. We should provide a camping area with security, water, and sanitation and allow charitable organizations to provide simple food, or perhaps a food truck can visit the site every day and provide some soup and bread. When there’s a designated camping spot for the homeless, the sheriff can go and root out the illegal campers and charge them with trespassing.
Sacramento is doing something similar.
The big quake lmao you conspiracy nutts will find any situation suitable to talk about the big one
Modesto actually opened a “tent camp”. The video embedded in this gives status- they are closing it in favor of indoor shelter. The outdoor camp did mean a reduction of crime caused by the homeless outside the parks but not inside the park. Fire was an issue plus once people are provided a space, it soon became filled up and the government became obligated to control what happened to the campers. The government could not provide heat, security or other services in a tent city.
https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/modesto/modesto-homeless-shelter/103-8656d924-a1ae-4fe5-b2cf-450326a2dd9c
The indoor shelter is in operation sort of .
https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/modesto/stanislaus-county-prepares-to-close-outdoor-shelter/103-c4b2b17e-e048-4b31-8627-a88fbd8214c2
The county is only worried about ripping everyone off and taxing everyone into poverty or relocation. They don’t give a crap about the citizens with houses let alone the homeless. They’ll be a lot more homeless around here in the next 3 to 5 years and it will be people you know and grew up with!!!!!
California “ we have a housing crisis” also Ca “you built a illegal house, we’re going to have to fine you and you have to tear it down.”
It already is people we grew up with. But yes absolutely you are right. Estelle has got to go so we can realize solutions finally. Her disdain for the poor, while exacerbating poverty with her cannabis policies, is beyond unsustainable. Elderly, disabled war veterans, amputees, single moms with 6 plants on their porches are getting wiped out with abatements as we speak folks. It’s all connected.
This is right there at Your property. If you and your husband would spend a little bit of your illegal indoor weed profits on cleaning up your lands with all of the trash and tweeker camps ,maybe these fires wouldn’t happen.
Yeah, it’s always somebody else’s fault when the greedy land owners there let the tweeker camps proliferate and set fire to shit. Look in the mirror.
This all started with you greedy big green rushers and drug pushers making zombies out of drug addled and mentally ill folks thinking they’ll get a free ride here in cash land.
No one made anyone become a drug addict. Each one chose something at the start. Sometimes a person may have some luck when they didn’t get trapped by poor Choices but that is where luck comes in. No one is “lucky” because the made good choices. Whether it was opoids for pain relief or partying or self medicating. Or simply gave in to being encouraged to blame others when the only person who could really save them was themselves. Quit trying to shovel off responsibility on everyone but the one responsible.
So my childhood friend, who was put on Pain pills at 9yrs old, due to a continual health problem, and is now a full blown addict, is at fault? It surely wasn’t the doctors who said it was safe or the parents who were told it was safe! It was totally her choice, at the age of nine! Think before you speak. Oops tuck that in, your privilege is showing!
The choice of the parents and doctors are a part of the equation, full blown addict isn’t a desired outcome, I’m sure there are plenty of things that could have been done better.
Life, the ultimate transmitted disease.
Life can be tough for sober people who can’t make ends meet.
I wish your friend all the best, SMH.
SAM
Thank you Sam
Wow. Who knew all those drug addicts were 9 year old when they started… Maybe you should not rely on what must be an extremely rare, in fact unheard of, situation to justify being nasty in support of drug addiction. I won’t insult you by thinking you really believe that’s called thinking.
I was being sarcastic not nasty. I’m not justifying addiction but to say it’s always a choice is bias and ridiculous. That’s was just one of many I know. I’m not relying on just one case, like your assuming.
I had a neighbor, model sober citizen, who was in a car accident. He got better, but freaked out when he could no longer receive his pills. He lives under the bridge with the rest of them now.
My, sober model citizen, co-worker was hurt on the job, same thing. Cut off from the pills and now he has a tent in the bushes.
My, sober model citizen, x- in- law, had surgery on her legs and was prescribed huge bottles of pills. It completely changed her behavior & personality & eventually bailed. It’s only a matter of time before she’s sleeping next to my co-worker, neighbor or friend.
They all made choices but based off professional opinions, who said those pills were safe.
There’s more to it than just always blaming the addict.
Ps. You comment is the very definition of insult. Maybe comment on something you may no more about, than TRYING to pick on someone who misses a friend, neighbor, co-worker and x-in-law.
While working in Redway, I brought my 7 year old son with me once for the day and while we walked to Deb’s to grab lunch he said to me “why are there so many nice cars here and so much trash on the ground?”
I thought that summed up Redway pretty well.
Exactly! More energy spent typing and complaining vs pick up
I pick up trash spread across our parking lot and on our dock every morning and have been doing it for nearly 17 years now.
Thank you
I wish the energy it took to type a sentence, was all that it took to clean up the street I work on. If life were that easy ?
And I wasn’t complaining, but merely telling the story of a 7 year olds observation of a town he lived in.
Them maybe don’t leave the positive of the story out vs the negative & then maybe folks wouldn’t think your complaining
Yes, the positive part is of trash strewing is… Or… Hmm… Maybe there is no positive about trashing public spaces and maybe complaining would be appropriate. Maybe those flicking off others should do less complaining about what others say and more picking up themselves. Or at least try their bullying on the people making the problem instead of those trying to cope with it.
I pick up trash everyday but hear folks complain who never do sqwat to fix it.
?
Unfortunately, while you blinded yourself with emotional, reactivate, trolling, judgement of my comment, you missed the point. Turned out the actual positive of the story was the fact they picked up the trash, which they didn’t include at first, therefore it just sounded like unproductive complaining. Was just giving a suggestion to what could have helped their comment from being misunderstood. What’s your excuse, troll police troll?
You should have made the point sound less like some smarmy put down and not assumed that the person pointing it out was less helpful than you. Picking up trash is not fixing the problem anyway. It’s cleaning up after the problem has left the trash.
I’m so sure he said that!
It might be constructive to set judgment of individuals aside for a little, and try what Einstein called “a thought experiment” : consider only the impact of homeless encampments on the community. My thought experiment, for what it’s worth, goes like this: 1) homelessness has a terrible impact on everyone in the community, housed and unhoused, because it presents serious health and safety hazards, blight, economic loss, and an overall decline in everyone’s quality of life; 2) if we can provide safe housing, at the very least, weather shelters, fewer people will be on the street and in homeless encampments causing the above impacts AND there will be an option for law enforcement to offer to individuals as an alternative to jail for vagrancy; 3) this will save the county money, free officers to deal with serious crimes, reduce the public health and safety hazards, reduce blight, and generally improve the community. Just forget about who “deserves” and doesn’t “deserve” services — some do, some don’t, and who is who depends on who’s judging; just do what brings the best results for us residents and business owners. Don’t expect a 100% solution: some people really don’t want to live in any kind of public housing or shelter; some people are truly bad actors; it’s impossible to reach everyone; but every person housed or sheltered is another person off the streets and out of illegal camps.
Well for one thing, there are no more vagrantcy laws. Not only are the laws that gave authorities the right to move on people with no visible source of income barred but recently the courts have mandated that people have a right to sleep on public property without exception. Also the laws that allowed the authorities to involuntarily incarcerate mentally ill people have been so curtailed that they can not be used except for immediate direct threats. That includes drug or alcohol impairment.
If a group of such people are provided housing in a group, they bring with them their impaired judgement and violence. While that may reduce the misery they cause people “housed” normally, it focusses the violence and misery they impose on each other. The government can’t simply provide a place to stay without also incurring obligations to make that places safe, decent and sanitary. If one resident sets a fire and injures another, government is liable for the injured person while still required to protect the right of the person who sets the fire. The government is trapped in a cycle of law suits that both obligate them and prevent them from fulfilling the obligations. And a bottomless purse for lawyers suing based on empathy for everyone but the law abiding.
Whatever costs the gov’t incurs while regulating a “Safe Camp” will be way less than what’s happening now. Nothing is going to be the perfect solution, but Camps would be safer to the houseless and the housed as well. There are lots of folks who will help out as volunteers & if there’s simple but sound nutrition happening thru donated food& ppl helping, this will be a step in the right direction. We need a lot more Golden Rule in our county, from the top to the bottom!
you say;
…”There are lots of folks who will help out as volunteers ” Sure, but WHERE do we volunteer?? … I tried to find out how and where to do exactly that last winter..
There’s some programs around Eureka, but in so hum? There was no place to volunteer other than the mateel meal. That’s food, but not a warm place to sleep.
Didn’t churches used to open on especially cold nights? Why did they stop doing that?
Hmm… The golden rule is to treat others as you wish to be treated. Since I want to be treated with respect, that is how I treat homeless people. I would never assume that they were anything other than capable people unless shown otherwise. That does not mean that once shown otherwise I have to pretend that they are. In fact to pretend that people don’t have the issues they do is rather heartless as it assumes they are fixed easily. What is needed is a way of imposing some cooperation
Did you read any of the things about the Modesto Homeless Camp? That they opened it, filled up right away and found they had to make rule after rule cope with the “volunteers” creating uncoordinated messes, they had a fire that burn 5 other residents tents, a woman died of exposure, the sanitation was bad. And there are already a couple of law suits. It’s closing soon to be replaced with an indoor, more communal shelyure. But as one resident said “Others have grown to love the sense of community and freedom created in MOES.
“I don’t think people really like it, you know you like your own independence, your own little house. It’s much better than living with a bunch of people,” Andrus said.”
And there is – homeless people, drug addicts, mentally ill all have similar wants with everyone else- not to be bothered by rules and coercion. Unfortunately since that frequently becomes destructive of self and others when judgement is poor, it is not possible for government to give them the freedom they want.
Nonprofit campgrounds and trailer parks would ease some of the burden. Charge a less than market fee to cover expenses. Violent disruptive people not allowed. People who throw needles around not allowed.
There’s no one solution, we can only do partial solutions, but this one would be cost effective and would definitely help. Might even produce a small income for the county.
Unfortunately severe mentally ill folks are unable to care for themselves They self medicate with horrible street drugs that compound their psychosis
We need mental institutions with court mandated institutionalization for the severely mentally ill
We need court mandated rehabilitation for those that are clearly on drugs
The catch & release of folks is a joke
These fires will continue & pose a huge threat to local residents