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Fire at Loma Alta - 2.0
updated: Jan 23, 2013, 12:17 PM
By The Urban Hikers
At approximately 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday evening, as reported by a very busy Roger
the Scanner Guy, another fire on Loma Alta was reported to SBFD. This was the
second fire in that immediate vicinity in as many days. While Monday night's
fire started above Loma Alta, Tuesday night's fire appears to have started on
the hillside below the roadway.
Quick-acting residents in the neighborhood on Marilla Ave. outened the flames
with a nearby garden hose. They used a ladder to access the flames, by way of a
retaining wall on the hillside. At that time, the flames were reported to be
approximately 10 feet high.
Shortly after the initial report, when crews from Engine 1arrived on scene, the
flames had already been extinguished. Firefighters remained on scene, however,
to make certain there were no flare-ups, and to secure the area for the
investigator's work.
It was noted that the low winds were advantageous to the firefighting effort.
While overall humidity was somewhat low, the quick response of nearby residents,
as well as their willingness to ascend the steep hillside with a garden hose,
aided in the speedy suppression of this potentially dangerous vegetation fire.
A fire investigator arrived immediately on scene to inspect, as well as to
interview several witnesses who mentioned seeing a homeless encampment at the
location of Tuesday night's fire. The encampment has reportedly been a
neighborhood fixture for many years.
This was the fourth suspicious fire on the lower Westside in five days. On
Friday, a fire broke out in Bohnett Park; on Saturday, there was a fire near
Shoreline Community Church on San Andreas Street; on Monday there was a
vegetation fire on the hillside above Loma Alta, and on Tuesday, this fire broke
out below and north of Monday's fire on Loma Alta. While there is no
definitive cause for this fire, investigators and fire personnel will be working
to determine whether it is coincidence, or whether there is a relationship with
any or all of these fires.
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