The Kensington Fire Safe Council is a group of Kensington residents who promote fire safety in their community. The neighborhood, located between Interstate 15 and Fairmount Avenue, includes about 800 homes.
Amy Dyson has been a Kensington resident on and off since the '70s. She is a co-chair of the council.
"The Montezuma fire that occurred last year on Halloween was a big wake up call to a lot of neighbors," Dyson said, "Kensington is a high fire severity zone and we're surrounded by canyons, very vulnerable. So if we can get our canyon residents to maintain their properties to 100 feet, we'll be that much safer in the case of a wildfire."
Dyson is referring to maintaining 100 feet of defensible space around a home. She said the council gives community presentations about fire safety. But their group has a new focus.
"We have noticed that a lot of fires are being started by these illegal encampments and we're very concerned about that," Dyson said.
Fire Safe Council volunteers said they have reported at least 10 illegal encampments in Fairmount Canyon on the east side of Kensington to the city through the Get It Done website and app in the last few weeks. Those have all been cleared but they said new ones pop up every day.
"They are cooking with open flame and and propane tanks and that kind of stuff, and keeping warm at night with propane. A spark here could end up being (Pacific) Palisades. I mean, it's so dry and the right wind conditions, there's homes 100 yards up the hill," said Mike Baldwin, another the Fire Safe Council volunteer. "I lived through the Oakland Hills fire. So I understand mass devastation."
Baldwin wants his neighbors to be proactive and notify officials through the city’s Get It Done app and website if they see illegal encampments.
In a written statement a spokesperson for the city of San Diego told KPBS the city will continue to address encampments on City property in this area.
"There’s a variety of safety advice always being given to individuals experiencing homelessness contacted by City staff (including fire and police) or contracted-outreach workers," the statement said.
Judy Harrington is the other co-chair of Kensington Fire Safe. She said besides the illegal encampments, another concern is that not all neighbors are maintaining 100 feet of defensible space around their property.
"We also would like to see the city really enforce strongly the codes around brush management because you're only as safe as your neighbor. And so if your neighbor has a lot of overgrown palm trees in their backyard or front yard or trash piled up nearby or whatever, that's highly flammable," Harrington said.
The city of San Diego did not respond to questions about enforcing brush management in Kensington before publication of this story.
Harrington encourages other high-fire-risk neighborhoods to contact the Fire Safe Council of San Diego County to start their own local fire council.
"It's really good about helping people start fire safe councils and also apply for funding because there are grant funds available," Harrington said.
