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There are very frequent fires in the marshes by the Bay caused by homeless encampments. The results are that:
Endangered species living in the supposedly protected area are at high risk;
E. Palo Alto Homes are often in danger;
Firefighters are in physical danger when responding to these fires because of booby traps set by the large numbers of homeless people living in encampments and put at health risk because of excrement and drug paraphernalia.. Firefighters in California are a precious resource and the various agencies should be doing everything possible to protect those personnel.
General Public Health issues caused by the reported latrines, rubbish and drug debris;
SF Bay Pollution: All the harmful detritus in the area flushes out into the Bay;
No Help for Homeless: In addition to all the above there seems to be no long term solution to help the homeless in this area.
Equity Issues: If this problem existed close to one of the more affluent areas of the Bay Area, remediation would be swift and permanent. Obviously, since the area abuts East Palo Alto nobody cares. Although one would think that Facebook would care since at least one of their buildings is adjacent to the fires.
Potential Liabilities: It would seem that there are numerous scenarios that could result in the various entities being sued by individuals and/or environmental groups such as Save the Bay.
Jurisdictional Incompetence:Apparently this area is under multiple jurisdictions, none of whom appear to be taking responsibility for addressing this problem, when the obvious solution would be for all agencies concerned to combine efforts.
Solution: Maybe Save the Bay and other environmental groups of the EPA need to sue all the various do-nothing jurisdictions
Below are some of the newspaper articles reporting on some of the fires:
https://www.almanacnews.com/news/2020/05/22/blaze-spreading-after-menlo-park-encampment-catches-fire
https://padailypost.com/2020/05/24/three-fires-in-one-week-at-homeless-encampment-near-facebook/
https://padailypost.com/2020/06/05/three-fires-in-three-hours-starts-at-a-homeless-encampment/
https://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2020/07/10/fires-point-to-risky-conditions-in-ravenswood-triangle
https://inmenlo.com/2020/05/23/encampment-and-neighboring-grass-fire-in-menlo-park-raises-larger-social-issues-according-to-fire-chief-harold-schapelhouman/
