By Jenna Wilson
St. Joseph News-Press
ST. JOSPEH, Mo. — Trying to stay warm as the temperatures drop? People who are unhoused can sometimes resort to unsafe measures — causing more fire risks.
This time of year, the St. Joseph Fire Department is seeing more transient fires that are accidentally caused by those living outdoors to cook and find ways to keep themselves warm.
“We stay in communication with the fire department or the police department, and we’ll go out and investigate something that may have took place at a structure,” said City of St. Joseph Property Maintenance Manager Juston Carr. “Typically they’re vacant where they find squatters or somebody that’s not supposed to be in the property.”
The St. Joseph Fire Department responds to more than 14,000 calls each year and more than 100 of those are structure fires. But the numbers are higher this year. As of November, the fire department has responded to more than 117 structure fires.
Fire crews are concerned with the number of transient fires rising as winter approaches and those living outside, in tents or cars begin seeking shelter more often.
“We understand that as the weather gets cold they’re looking for heat,” said Jamey McVicker, assistant chief with the St. Joseph Fire Department. “As challenging as that might be, those fires also put our firefighters under harm’s way because when we don’t know if anybody’s inside, we’re going to do a search just to make sure.”
According to property maintenance manager Carr, the best way to reduce the risk of break-ins that can lead to fires is to keep vacant properties maintained.
“Typically, the deterioration of the property kind of prompts that it is a vacant property,” he said. “Which prompts people who are squatters in the community to try and enter it and eventually they do get into them.”
Officials also are educating members of the homeless community on what they can do to minimize transient fire risk. Primarily they are urging people to utilize the different organizations that assist those who are unhoused with resources.
“The St. Joseph community does a fantastic job of putting resources out there to help,” McVicker said. “It takes asking for help or knowing where to get those resources and your firefighters will help with that. We want to do everything we can to take that challenge away and provide for the unhoused.”
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