SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – The hose and the liquid spraying from it may look like a San Diego firefighter spraying down a fire.
But Fire-Rescue crews and the city's Environmental Service Department are actually preventing one in this area off Imperial Avenue.
“We’re meeting Fire out here so they can spray this with a new fire retardant that they’ve partnered up with us,” said Franklin Coopersmith, Deputy Director Environmental Services Department
What they’re spraying is a homeless encampment that was cleared out on Friday.
“Once an encampment is abated and cleaned up, we proactively go through there with our city partners and we spray treat it to prevent the likelihood of another fire activity,” Deputy Chief - Fire Marshall Tony Tosca for San Diego Fire-Rescue said.
ABC 10News first told you about the spray earlier this month. It’s a citrus-based fire retardant known as Citrotech, produced by Mighty Fire Breaker.
The fire department was able to get the spray and equipment as a part of a grant program to spray areas with fire risk, evacuation routes and touching homeless encampments that have been cleared out.
“We know that’s a great opportunity to get in there. Because if an encampment does return before we’re able to get back there, we want to make sure that area is fire-treated as possible,” Coopersmith said. s
Given how top-of-mind fires are right now, the importance of these fire prevention efforts in areas we may not see is critical.
“So in these areas where encampments have gone a little bit deeper and they’re surrounded by vegetation, we want to make sure we’re getting in there and getting any kind of combustibles that would go up and cause a fire,” Coopersmith said.
Typically from October to March, the Fire Department told ABC 10News they see a spark in fires likely caused at encampments because people are trying to stay warm.
The department said it's hard to pinpoint who started a fire.
However, data obtained by ABC 10News shows between January and part of November 2024 there were more 900 fires -- likely started by an unhoused individual.
“There has been a few recent fires, you know. But to pinpoint whether it’s caused by a homeless individual, you have to have a suspect on site and you have to have actually reported contact information. So it’s really hard,” Tosca said. “The numbers and frequency, we are seeing more fires. But, it’s hard to attribute those numbers to that specifically because we may have more people reporting it.”
The numbers are also broken down into what kind of likely fires were caused during that time. There were 315 likely homeless vegetation fires, 354 likely homeless rubbish fires, 227 likely homeless illegal burns and 40 likely other homeless fires.
San Diego Fire-Rescue told ABC 10News that October’s Fairmount Fire happened in or near a homeless encampment.
Having this work being done is a game changer for the department in preventing fires from getting any bigger.
“I think we have to think proactively and get ahead of these things. My job as a Fire Marshal is to address the likelihood of the spread of fires or reduce that risk to protect our communities. That’s my sworn duty to do,” Tosca said. “So preventative, proactive in concert with the suppression effort is a key factor.”
