After Warehouse Tent Fire, Police Clear Soilscape Homeless Encampment at Property Owner’s Request

Arcata Police Department officers enforced a four-hour evacuation deadline at the former Soilscape property located at Samoa Blvd. on Wednesday afternoon, at the property owner’s request, according to Lt.  Keith Altizer. Following a tent fire inside the warehouse and an earlier fire at the property, the immediate removal of unhoused individuals  displaced an estimated 20 to 45 people who had been sheltering without permission on the private property for many months. 

The fire occurred in a tent located inside the warehouse. Multiple people had been camping inside the building after a previous homeless camp at a neighboring lot was removed. Roughly 45 people lived outdoors for more than a decade at their former encampment with some having been in the area for nearly twenty years. 

A resident who witnessed the aftermath explained it was “just a tent that caught on fire” rather than a structural fire. The exact cause of the fire remains under investigation by the Arcata Fire Department. 

Paint tire tracks mark the parking lot of the former Soilscape warehouse, once the Safe Parking city-sanctioned program location. This was the location of the tent fire yesterday that resulted in the property being cleared by Arcata Police Department at the request of the property owner. [All photos by Ryan Hutson]

“Officers arrived on scene first and [had] a gate [opened] for them, and the only access issue they had was the wet paint that was all over that they had to drive through, which damaged some of their fire engines,” Altizer said.

The property, formerly used as safe parking during COVID-19, had become an encampment after police cleared the adjacent vacant parcel known as “the 40” earlier this year. Residents had been living in campsites inside the warehouse and along the property’s perimeter fence line.

A building code notice is seen affixed to the outside of the building following the fire. [Photo by Ryan Hutson]

A trespass notice is seen taped to the side door entrance of the former Soilscape warehouse, dated July 29th, 2025. [Photo by Ryan Hutson] 

Throughout the day, the former inhabitants packed up what they could carry and trekked out to find a new place to stay. Lt. Altizer confirmed that as of 5:30 p.m. no arrests were made.  Altizer also explained that Arcata House Partnership (AHP) responded to the scene following the fire and set up a reception area at the Arcata Annex at 501 Ninth Street.

According to one resident who described speaking with AHP while they visited the location, the primary resource offered was access to a warming station in Eureka, while none of the dozen or more unhoused people we spoke with on site had found shelter, or had a plan of where to go. 

One 37-year-old woman, who asked not to be identified, described the limitations of available help. She said, AHP “showed up for sure, but there’s no resources.”. “They said that there was a warming station in Eureka – we could go warm up. That’s what they had available. I’m not talking smack on them because… there’s not enough resources… And I appreciate them.”

The woman, a former cannabis industry worker, explained her situation. “I’m 37 with two college degrees. I worked in the weed industry for over a decade and I was very successful, but our way of life just fell apart. So what do we do now? It’s a weird transition period, and it shouldn’t look like this.”

She also described safety concerns that keep her camping with others rather than alone.  

A dozen community members and homeless advocates had arrived to help people subject to the trespass to move their belongings on short notice. One anonymous community member assisting with the evacuation criticized the approach. “This is a forced self-sweep… [The Police] are displacing a ton of people all at once and expecting them to just figure their lives out.”

The activist explained that part of the volunteer work involves “pursuing and making a friendship with them. I think that’s like a big thing that people do… share in life with these people, and not abandon them because of some preconceived notion about what humanity is.”

Property owner lease holder Ken Beidleman confirmed on-site that he plans to repurpose the building as the new location for the Kinetic Sculpture Lab and envisioned learning center. Explaining that the idea for the property was ultimately to create “something for the community,” but noting that he had not planned to enforce the removal just yet, Beidleman explained that the fire inside the warehouse had forced his hand. 

The 75-year-old co-founder of the original Kinetic Lab with Duane Flatmo said he hopes to “get it [developed] into… a learning center and teach the high schools how to do this stuff,” referring to the art and science of kinetic engineering. Beidleman co-founded the Kinetic Sculpture Lab in Arcata nearly three decades ago and has been racing kinetic sculptures in the Grand Championship for years.

“We were thinking that we could get into this building in about a month or so, but unfortunately, …a fire kind of expedited the consequences” He said, adding, “…unfortunate for them, which is kind of tragic, but fortunate for us that we can move forward in getting the Kinetic Lab established,” Beidleman said. 

A resident prepares to leave the property, explaining that they have not found a place to shelter as an alternative.

By approximately 5:45 p.m., APD had left the scene and residents had vacated the property.

EARLIER: 

• Commercial Structure Fire Reported at Former Soilscape Solutions Property on Samoa Boulevard
• Arcata’s Largest Homeless Camp ‘The Forty’ Cleared with help of APD