The Chico City Council on Monday declared a local fire emergency along Lindo Channel, where fire officials say outdoor fires started by unhoused residents are putting the community at risk.
The city hopes the declaration will allow it to speed up the removal of homeless encampments, a process governed by the Warren v. Chico homelessness settlement.
Assistant City Manager Erik Gustafson said the fire emergency could give the city a way to “approach” the firm representing the unhoused plaintiffs and get “people that are camping in the channel into a shelter that's made available to them as quickly as possible.”
The city’s attorney, Ryan Jones, said he plans to work closely with Legal Services of Northern California to ensure whatever enforcement is taken doesn’t violate the agreement, which expires early next year.
“The Warren settlement certainly has legal implications about how the city enforces camping, but it also doesn't preclude it from taking measures, certainly emergency measures to protect its citizenry,” Jones said. “We're working that balance.”
According to the Chico Fire Department, over 140 outside fires have been linked to unhoused residents so far this year. A majority of those fires were in greenways – including Lindo Channel – which are deemed wildfire hazard areas due to their dense vegetation and proximity to neighborhoods.
Chico Fire Chief Wes Metroka said a wildfire in the channel is an accident waiting to happen, especially during the summer when intense heat dries out fuels.
“When you have prolonged heat and low fuel moisture, you pair that with a significant north wind event and low humidities, you have every piece of the puzzle for a red flag condition,” Metroka said. “In those conditions, a fire that starts relatively small in the channel can get out of control really quickly.”
City councilors voted 6-to-1 in favor of enacting the local fire emergency, which authorizes the city manager to take “all necessary actions” to address the issue.
Councilmember Bryce Goldstein was the sole opposing vote. She said she worried focusing only on Lindo Channel would open up other greenways – like Lower Bidwell Park – to the same problem down the line.
“We need to be holistically addressing this problem, and I'm very concerned that this is being treated as basically a Band-Aid solution,” Goldstein said. “I know from previous experience that when you evict homeless people from one section of the city, they go to another, and we're just going to see the same issues in my section of the community.”
Some advocates for the unhoused community were also unhappy about the declaration.
Charles Withuhn, president of the North State Shelter Team, said ramping up enforcement in Lindo Channel won’t stop cooking fires from being set elsewhere.
“What happened here was another exercise in kicking a can down the road,” Withuhn said. “You want fewer fires in the park? Create safe places to have fires.”
