Fed Up With 'A Fire A Week' North East Mission Residents Demand Action On Encampments

San Francisco CA

09 November, 2021

6:48 PM

Description

By Anlan Cheney and Will Jarrett, Mission Local November 9, 2021 Dana Marek was visibly upset. Pointing to the electrical pole ten feet from her front door on Shotwell Street where city employees tried to lacquer over the charred wood, she recounts how a propane fire started here in 2018. It consumed a car and neared the electrical transformer before it was extinguished by the San Francisco Fire Department. No one was hurt, but two of her tenants left the next week, she said. Nowadays, her neighborhood sees "a fire a week," Marek said. A recent one erupted on Sept. 30 across the street from Marek's home against Foods Co's west wall between 14th and 15th streets. Marek and her neighbors had just paid an artist to repaint a mural there to discourage tagging and encampments. Marek noted the particular bell shape of the fire scars indicating a propane tank. "You can see them around the neighborhood." Many, as it turns out. Fire incident data confirms residents' sense that fires are increasing. Lt. Jonathan Baxter, SF Fire Department public information officer, said the city saw a 60 percent increase in outdoor fires in 2020. To read the full article, click here. Mission Local covers San Francisco from the vantage point of the Mission, a neighborhood with all of the promise and problems of a major city. You can support Mission Local here.