Several vehicles caught fire at a homeless encampment in West Oakland on Monday morning, according to authorities responding to the scene.
A large fire that swept through a homeless encampment underneath the 880 Freeway in West Oakland on Monday destroyed several vehicles and RVs before it was put out by firefighters.according to the Oakland Fire DepartmentMore than 60 firefighters extinguished the blaze just after noon, said Oakland Fire Department public information officer Michael Hunt. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
There were no immediate reports of injuries, and authorities said that no one living in the encampment has come forward to say they were displaced.The fire, which more than doubled in size over the weekend, was near Yosemite’s Mariposa Grove, home to the Grizzly Giant and other sequoias. The fire stalled traffic on the freeway and an Amtrak train for over two hours. Video footage from the scene showed firefighters surrounded by mounds of debris and other items at the encampment, flanked by the freeway columns.
“We have a little bit of everything burning,” Oakland Fire Chief Reginald Freeman told reporters outside the encampment Monday. “We have cars, we have RVs, we have a ton of combustible materials, hazardous materials. We’ve had several explosions since we’ve been here working on this incident. Which is obviously a concern and a threat to the safety of the firefighters mitigating this incident.”Freeman expects the freeway and a wooden train trestle that caught fire to be inspected for damage.
The Oakland Fire Department has responded to more than 90 fires of varying sizes at the encampment. In March, a person died after they were trapped in a van when a fire broke out.
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