Encampment Fire Breaks Out In RivCo Friday

RIVERSIDE, CA — A fire that broke out Friday in a homeless encampment within the Santa Ana River bottom in Riverside was quickly knocked down after spreading into brush.

The non-injury blaze was reported shortly before 8 a.m. Friday in Anza Narrows Park, just north of Jurupa Avenue, according to the Riverside Fire Department.

The agency said five engine crews, numbering nearly 20 personnel, were sent to the location and encountered flames "at a homeless encampment on an island" that had formed in the middle of the riverbed.

The flames spread to the northern side of the river bottom, into Riverside County Fire Department jurisdiction, and city and county crews together knocked down the blaze in light vegetation 20 minutes later, according to RFD Battalion Chief Mike Allen.

Roughly a quarter acre was consumed.

"The cause of the fire was determined to be human-caused and related to the homeless encampment," he said.

The river bottom is riddled with transient camps, and cooking, warming, debris and other fires are common year-round.