Oakland firefighters issue warning after latest fires at Wood Street encampment

OAKLAND – Days before a court hearing to determine the future of the Wood Street homeless encampment in West Oakland, not one, but two fires started there on Tuesday.

Representatives from the Oakland Fire Department said the situation is becoming more dangerous.

“There are a lot of hazards. It’s hazardous to us, but it’s also hazardous to the residents who live there,” Deputy Chief Heather Mozdean told KPIX 5.

Mozdean is talking about residents like Matt Lake, who has lived at the Wood Street encampment for about 6 months. Lake said he had gotten out of prison and had nowhere else to go. He’s now working full-time in San Francisco.

“A lot of people didn’t want this. They don’t want this. They just came here because it was a step toward housing,” said Lake.

The Wood Street encampment is almost a mile long and is home to around 200 people at any given time. As Lake walks through the encampment, he points out the power lines and extension cords running everywhere, which is a constant source of worry.

“One of these things goes up on fire, and the wind is blowing, I mean, look at it. Everybody is going to be devastated,” said Lake as he gestures to his neighbor’s RVs.

There were two small fires at the encampment on Tuesday. The first one started around 7:30 a.m., when a car caught on fire.

Just before noon, the second fire started when a pile of trash started to burn.

Oakland firefighters put both fires out within minutes, but the deputy chief says more needs to be done.

There have been a number of large fires at the Wood Street encampment over the past few months, including one on July 11 that shut down the MacArthur Maze for most of the day.

According to Oakland Fire, they’ve already responded to more than 60 fires at the Wood Street encampment so far in 2022. In 2021, there were 115 fires, one every few days.

“There’s no infrastructure. There’s no hydrants. There’s no roads. There’s no access for us. All of the code and infrastructure in a homeless encampment isn’t there,” said Mozdean.

The efforts to clear the encampment have been a complicated, multi-jurisdictional issue between the city of Oakland, Alameda County, and Caltrans. The state allocated almost $5 million to the city of Oakland to provide housing to Wood Street residents.

Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom sent a letter to the city blasting the lack of action. The governor released another statement Tuesday after the two fires at the Wood Street encampment.

“With each passing day, the general public is put at risk, and individuals experiencing homelessness are left to languish in an area unsuitable for living conditions. The state has also provided unprecedented funding for local governments to offer shelter and housing to individuals,” Newsom said.

Lake said all he wants is the housing that was promised.

“All these RVs. They’re just getting worse and worse and worse. Leaking. One more family of rats. One more pile of garbage. Nothing is getting better, so do what you said you were going to do in the beginning and get these people off Wood Street,” he said.

There is a federal court hearing on Friday in Oakland where Caltrans, the City of Oakland, and Alameda County are expected to outline the proposal to provide housing to the more than 200 residents at the Wood Street encampment.

Newsom’s office is still threatening to pull state funding if the new proposal is not deemed adequate.