River Community Advocates - Fire Hazards in Illegal Encampments - June 2018

By Jennifer Wertz and Mark Emmett

An update to an article submitted last May about trespassing enforcement and fire prevention as it relates to illegal homeless encampments in our area.

This year is different. A couple of weeks ago, I felt a strange fear I have never felt before as I witnessed a small windstorm in Coffey Park. I looked around at the surrounding hills, and the dry grass stood out more. This awful thought crept into my head, what if it happened again? I hope that we are all going to be more vigilant now that we have experienced the most horrible example of the devastation that fire can cause. We all need to be responsible for ourselves by doing things like creating defensible space around our homes, attending planning meetings, and avoiding recklessness with BBQs and campfires, but what about the illegal encampments around us?

Like it or not, the reality of the situation is that the winter shelter has closed once again, and the homeless have headed out to trespass in the woods and set up illegal camps.

With these camps come the very real danger of escaped camp fires, of which there were approximately 10 over the last year in our area pe Russian River Fire Captain Ryan Lantz. No open flames for cooking or warming are allowed anytime in illegal encampments. Though no suspect has been identified, there were also two very large arson fires near a homeless encampment off of Neely Rd. on consecutive weekend days last summer. The CAL FIRE helicopter had to be deployed to scoop water from the river to douse the flames, as the fires were in a remote area up a steep hillside that was very difficult to access. Any one of these situations could have been catastrophic, like the devastating fires we all witnessed last November.

So, besides being responsible for ourselves, what can we as community members do to try and help prevent a major fire from occurring in an illegal encampment out here?

Here’s what you should know:For the Sheriff to enforce trespassing on private property, there are two requirements that BOTH have to be met.

The property has to be properly posted with no trespassing signs “along all exterior boundaries and at all roads and trails entering the property”. It is recommended that these signs be placed up high so they are less likely to be removed. In addition, a Trespass Action Request form has to be completed by the property owner and filed with the Sheriff’s dept. EVERY six months. These forms can be obtained from the Guerneville Sheriff’s Substation (Sonoma County Sheriff’s dispatch 707-565-2121 or Guerneville sub-station 707-869-0202), or by contacting the Guerneville Community Alliance,see below.

One of the obstacles in our area is that there are many vacant properties that have out-of-town owners who may not be aware that there is a problem on their property. A useful tool that anyone can use to identify the address, parcel number, and owner information of a property is a free commercial website - www.makeloveland.com. It can be difficult to identify parcels in wooded areas, but this website allows you to scroll over parcels until you find the right one.

The Guerneville Community Alliance has additional resources to identify parcel information, and we may be able to physically meet at a location in which it is difficult to determine the parcel number and/or address. We have form letters ready to send to out of town property owners, which inform them there is a problem they may not be aware of, and offers to help them get it resolved without any further fines and/or legal action. We try to include photographs, and it is helpful if people forward photographs of the problem to us for that purpose. We also offer to randomly monitor the property and work with the Sheriff’s Dept. or Fire Dept. if new problems develop, as well as offer referrals for trash clean-up in the event they are unable to do the clean-up themselves. If the property owner is unresponsive, contact Sonoma County Environmental Health at 707-565-6565 or eh@sonoma-county.org.

Per Chief Steve Baxman of the Monte Rio Fire Dept., if a fire hazard is identified, the best thing to do first is to contact your local Fire dept.For Forestville contact Chief Dave Francechi at 707-887-2212. ForGuerneville call the business office at 707-869-9089. ForMonte Rio contact Chief Steve Baxman at 707-484-2320. We also have a Cal FIRE station in Hilton between Rio Nido and Forestville, and they have the ability to do safety inspections and/or write citations holding owners responsible for hazardous situations.

To learn more about the Lower River Area Community Alliances, volunteer, or if you have community concerns or solutions you would like to share, you can “like” our Guerneville Community Alliance and/or Russian River Alliance FB pages. You can also contact Mark Emmett at 707-529-0534 or Jeniffer Wertz at 707-483-7038 (Guerneville), or Chuck Ramsey at 707-239-1639 (Monte Rio).