Second Goleta Homeless Camp Fire Along Highway 101

Brush fire on Highway 101 near Goleta (Photo: SBCFD) title=
Brush fire on Highway 101 near Goleta (Photo: SBCFD)
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Update by edhat staff

Santa Barbara County firefighters extinguished a brush fire that sparked near a homeless camp along Highway 101 on Monday afternoon.

After 2:30 p.m. firefighters responded to the area between the railroad tracks and Highway 101 southbound near the Los Carneros exit. A fire near a homeless encampment was spreading to the nearby vegetation and producing a large amount of smoke on the freeway.

Traffic restrictions were put in place as fire crews on the ground and helicopter making water drops worked to suppress the fire and knock it down. The forward progress of the fire has been stopped and crews will remain on scene to mop up.

There were no reported injuries and the official cause is under investigation. 

This is the second brush fire in Goleta along Highway 101 that started near a homeless camp. Ten days ago another fire close the same area shut down both directions of Highway 101 and prompted buildings to evacuate fire jumped from the southbound to the northbound lanes. 

    
Photos: SBCFD
Reported by Roger the Scanner Guy
2:24 p.m., July 13, 2020
 

There is a brush fire along Highway 101 southbound between the Fairview and Los Carneros exits.

Photo by Cheryl M.
 
Photo: Julia A.
 
Photo: Julia A.
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SBLetsGetAlong
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Jul 14, 2020 07:51 PM
Second Goleta Homeless Camp Fire Along Highway 101

Well I guess you get what the majority ejected into office. Another administration they spends hundreds of thousands researching why people are homeless instead of actually helping the homeless not be homeless.
Soon the homeless will create more homeless and lost businesses as the fires will eventually kill more people & burn more property.
But hey it’s not like the govt can do anything. Why would they use their vacant land to create a tent city with onsite health care? That’s ludicrous, why actually help them not be homeless. Right, crazy. All that vacant land, shelters for less than $1,000 each. Why would the govt want to help the homeless?

a-1594830773
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Jul 15, 2020 09:32 AM
Second Goleta Homeless Camp Fire Along Highway 101

There is no upper limit to the demand for free housing and support in this community. None ,It is infiinte. Or else the city is required to pick winner and losers in this lottery. ACLU has no right to inflict an unfunded mandate on us to house anyone who demands shelter in this community or else they get to camp on our sidewalks. Get a new city council and city attorney who will stare down ACLU, and not blink this time.

a-1594830608
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Jul 15, 2020 09:30 AM
Second Goleta Homeless Camp Fire Along Highway 101

Buy everyone a mobile home in Lake County, California - the most cost effective solution of all. Look up the housing prices in Lake County CA on Zillow. Makes a mockery of even using the term "homeless". Homes are available in this state. Just not here.

PitMix
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Jul 15, 2020 07:45 AM
Second Goleta Homeless Camp Fire Along Highway 101

What vacant land? Where are the funds to build the camps, provide security and healthcare and food and basic necessities? How do you limit the numbers of people that would show up once they found out that they could live decently? Easy to criticize, not so easy to come up with solutions, which is why NO ONE has been able to do it that I know of.

LCP112233
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Jul 14, 2020 03:40 PM
Second Goleta Homeless Camp Fire Along Highway 101

This is ridiculous. When are the powers that be going to do something about this situation before houses are burned down like up in Paso Robles? This is a serious problem.

PitMix
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Jul 15, 2020 07:43 AM
Second Goleta Homeless Camp Fire Along Highway 101

Yes because the Repubs running all those Cities all across the south have done such a smash up job of solving their poverty and homeless problems. But keep up with your magical thinking, it is all because people that think government can be part of the solution are wrong!

Chip of SB
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Jul 14, 2020 03:49 PM
Second Goleta Homeless Camp Fire Along Highway 101

The powers that be will only give us more of the same failed policies. If only people would finally vote all the stogy old republicans who have been running things all these years out of office and give the democrats a chance, then perhaps we could make things better.

JB86
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Jul 14, 2020 02:57 AM
Second Goleta Homeless Camp Fire Along Highway 101

sbletsgetalong
I agree that we should provide sanctioned places for the homeless to camp and live, and have no problem with some tax dollars going to sanitation and security. The tough issue is 'where?' Nobody wants such in their neighborhood, so if you place it in a remote area, the clients won't go for it because they live off the commercial centers, like Market Place and the Calle Real area, within walking distance of their present encampments. I haven't figured out a solution to this dilemma.

letmego
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Jul 15, 2020 09:22 AM
Second Goleta Homeless Camp Fire Along Highway 101

12:46 pm, they do have a choice. That's why it's tricky. You can give them a place to live, but they don't have to stay there. I recently spent some time in a big European city with a large safety net. I still saw a handful of homeless people sleeping on park benches during my visit. I asked my friends about it. They said "well, yes, we have a social safety net. Everyone can have a place to live. What happens is that the city will find them a flat to live in - but it probably isn't where they want to live. They grew up in neighborhood X and they want to live there. So they would rather be homeless than have an apartment in neighborhood Y." If you find a big piece of land in the county - like near the jail or something...how do they get food? The problem with out of the way places is that they are out of the way...

PitMix
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Jul 14, 2020 01:27 PM
Second Goleta Homeless Camp Fire Along Highway 101

12:46, Goleta Beach is a short walk from the 101 near Los Carneros? Maybe you are an ultramarathon runner and your definition of a short walk is different that most people's?

a-1594755980
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Jul 14, 2020 12:46 PM
Second Goleta Homeless Camp Fire Along Highway 101

Guess what? They have no choice. As long as there is a bed somewhere they cannot refuse to move. That is state law. As long as SB County provides shelter somewhere they can move them off of the streets and out of the vegetation. If the homeless don’t like it they can move along and burn down a different town.
Goleta Beach is a short walk from that area. There is nothing stopping them from going there to use BBQ facilities. It was hot out how do we know this wasn’t Arson on purpose? We know it wasn’t a warming fire. If they can walk to the store to get stuff to BBQ they can walk to the beach to cook it. This is out of hand.

JB86
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Jul 13, 2020 08:46 PM
Second Goleta Homeless Camp Fire Along Highway 101

The clock is running; in a few months the Sundowners will arrive. If nothing changes, a fire along the 101 and RR tracks could quickly run to the sea, taking everything in its path. We are rolling the dice here by failing to do the obvious = clear out the undergrowth and illegal camps. Just doesn't seem there is the political will to unite all the stakeholders to make it happen. Plenty of finger-pointing likely after the event (and more insurance cancellations for Goletans).

Basicinfo805
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Jul 13, 2020 06:57 PM
Second Goleta Homeless Camp Fire Along Highway 101

It's up to the elected "leaders" to make the call to end this ongoing issue, and the only way they will do that is for them to sense that the voting majority has had enough of this. Unfortunately, I don't think we're there yet, despite the recurrent fires and the ongoing problems with state st./downtown as a whole (nice library! Yeah, I went there as a kid, and hell no I'm not using it with my kid).

Thus far, we still have a very favorable sociopolitical vibe for this type of activity here in SB/Goleta. It's ultimately up to the public to decide what kind of place we want to live in. I think it will probably take a major catastrophe to shift the tide - likely a large fire that wipes out a few neighborhoods, and maybe takes a number of lives - to get this to happen.

Perosnally, I would like to see the freeway-train tracks corridor from Montecito to Goleta clearcut, starting tomorrow. It's a start. And I love trees.

Chip of SB
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Jul 13, 2020 08:48 PM
Second Goleta Homeless Camp Fire Along Highway 101

I would love to save the trees too! Unfortunately, our present course will assure the trees are all burned to the ground. In order to save the trees, we need to maintain them. What we have now is an overgrown mess. It could be a beautiful, park like freeway corridor lined with healthy, well pruned, and aesthetically pleasing trees. A well maintained landscape would not be a fire hazard and would not provide cover for drug addicts to live in. In order to save the trees, we need to show them some love in the form of thoughtful thinning and pruning.

SBLetsGetAlong
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Jul 13, 2020 06:43 PM
Second Goleta Homeless Camp Fire Along Highway 101

Thankfully no one was hurt. But seriously, over 40 years of discussing how to help the homeless and hundreds of thousands spent on “research” as to how to help them.

Who else is sick of this?
The County needs to sanction a tent City in a remote area so they can have a roof over their heads, meals and regular health care.

Before you say it costs too much money, ask how much these last two fire costs, now multiply that by a fire every other week throughout the county. Ask about all the paramedic calls to help the homeless. Etc...

Not to mention the safety issues and liability. The government is aware of these illegal dangerous activities and ignores them, they are negligent in protecting the citizens and property of the tax payers in this county.
They are fully aware of these camps and potential danger to lives and property.

But really they should sanction tent cities and allow residents of SB county to live in them who cannot provide for themselves.

Who else has to die, remember the man who died in the Goleta creek last year cooking dinner?

a-1594682690
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Jul 13, 2020 04:24 PM
Second Goleta Homeless Camp Fire Along Highway 101

They cleaned up the area from last week between Fairview and Patterson. Now they need to clear Los Carneros to Fairview and then keep going one section at a time but on both sides not just where the fires have burned already.

Roger
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Jul 13, 2020 03:24 PM
Second Goleta Homeless Camp Fire Along Highway 101

I haven't heard weather or not a homeless person started the fire it could have started another way. Not making excuses for the homeless but I doubt very much that Santa Barbara ever gets rid of the homeless or the camps they have been trying for years. Doubt there will ever be a so called cure for homelessness also as some folks choose to live that way.

cwazny
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Jul 13, 2020 04:38 PM
Second Goleta Homeless Camp Fire Along Highway 101

How about just chasing them the Hell out of there. The Feds runs Amtrak, so they should enforce the tresspassing laws on their easement. They, the Feds, are responsible. However, the reality is, the Feds are just going to keep doing as they always do; NOTHING.

Chip of SB
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Jul 13, 2020 03:04 PM
Second Goleta Homeless Camp Fire Along Highway 101

We need to clear all the dead and overgrown foliage along the freeway and tracks now! The same goes for parks and all other public spaces. Relying on unplanned burns to clear and maintain public land is not a viable strategy in a densely populated area. Sooner or later one of these fires is going to start in the wrong place at the wrong time.

ZeroHawk
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Jul 13, 2020 04:45 PM
Second Goleta Homeless Camp Fire Along Highway 101

ok Chip, go for it! We'll be behind you rooting. Maybe get Trump out there with you with his rake....because you know....cutting down all of the trees and raking the land prevents fires....*smh*

tagdes
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Jul 13, 2020 04:16 PM
Second Goleta Homeless Camp Fire Along Highway 101

Chet...Amtrak doesn't own any ROW...it would be Union Pacific and their Police has way more than they would be able to handle here. The local police can enforce trespassing along here they just don't bother doing it.

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