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First United Methodist Church was the scene of a fire Wednesday evening when a homeless encampment between two buildings caught fire. Above firefighters remove clothing and other material that had caught fire. |
Fire between church, outbuilding burns homeless encampment
January 15, 2016
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
First United Methodist Church was the scene of a fire Wednesday evening when a homeless encampment between two buildings caught fire.
According to Santa Paula Fire Captain Jerry Byrum the January 13 fire was reported about 9:20 p.m. in the 100 block of North Mill Street.
“It was ripping pretty good when we got there,” said Santa Paula Police Sgt. Jimmy Fogata.
“When officers arrived there was a pretty big head of smoke,” that Fotaga said was pinpointed by arriving SPFD personnel off the alley behind the church and “knocked it down pretty quick.”
Bystanders were the only ones at the scene when emergency personnel responded to the fire.
Fogata said the scene of the fire “Is a known transient camp that we’ve moved out of there in the past and there was a lot of debris and some mattresses…it was a good response by fire and luckily the church is a brick building.”
Santa Paula Fire Engines 81 and 82 as well as Ventura County Fire Engine 26 responded to the approximately 200 square-foot fire between the outbuilding and the church, a blaze that was knocked down by 9:28 p.m.
Byrum said a cause of the fire has not yet been determined.
“We do know homeless people have been living in the immediate area and they had quite a bit of urban belongings they had stashed between the buildings.”
The fire he added, was contained to the exterior and “The only damage was to a phone box to the church hall…the other building used to hold equipment for the cell tower but they pulled the equipment out about a year ago,” when the “tower” — the church spire — was deactivated.
The fire said Byrum, “Could have been a lot worse but the 1930s brick did a good job…”
The scene was cleared at 10:31 p.m.
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Santa Paula and Ventura County Fire departments responded Wednesday evening to a fire between First United Methodist Church and a church outbuilding. The cause of the fire, which was burning debris from a homeless encampment, has not been determined.
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