Fresh concerns about homeless campers in the Castro are being raised after one apparent encampment was the cause of a one-alarm blaze Wednesday that could have set an entire apartment building on fire. As the Bay Area Reporter reports via SF Fire Department spokesperson Johnathan Baxter, the fire broke out just after noon beneath a building's "porch-style vestibule" at 37 State Street, and was luckily quickly extinguished.

As Hoodline further explains, with help from the video below shot from a neighboring building, the fire broke out in what appears to be a semi-concealed hidey hole below the building's porch and above the bearing wall of the ARCO station at Castro and Market Streets — a spot from which this neighbor says he's seen a young woman emerge several times, who may in fact be this same woman of totally sound mind who climbed a utility pole across the street last month and had to be talked down by police.

The neighbor tells Hoodline that for about two months he's seen "several people living under the corner of the building behind the gas station ... [and] there are lots of clothes and other items hanging up inside the area."

It seems somewhat crazy that no one who lived in the building noticed or reported this — the video taker says the landlord had been informed — or that the landlord hadn't done anything about it, but after the fire yesterday, the landlord has allegedly told the building manager to install a fence around this area.

One commenter on Hoodline notes that this is the second fire in recent weeks to be seemingly "caused by unsafe living situations" involving the homeless, the first being a fire set in Dolores Park near the J tracks "under a very large dry pine tree" that was reportedly put out by an off-duty firefighter.

Another neighbor reports in the comments that this encampment has been around a while and "This was bound to happen sooner or later as 'campers' can be seen day in and day out climbing up the wall behind the gas station or jumping the fence in the building that houses KD Liquors. They get over the wall behind that building (where KD Liquors is), and make their way ... behind the homes on Market St, which turns into 17th St."

Luckily, no one was injured or displaced in Wednesday's fire, and damage to the building appears minor.


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