A fire at what appears to have been a homeless encampment near Charlottesville’s Tonsler Park erupted into a small forest fire Wednesday afternoon.
City fire crews extinguished the blaze shortly after dispatch, according to Fire Marshal Joe Phillips.
“The fire was in the woods behind Tonsler Park,” Phillips told The Daily Progress.
Phillips said crews were dispatched at 2:52 p.m., the blaze was under control or extinguished by 3:15 p.m., and all units departed by 4:41 p.m. Phillips estimated the burned area as 40 feet by 40 feet, with the fire centered near the chain-link fence that separates the park from private land owned by Woodard Properties.
A campfire at a time when the air temperature in Charlottesville was 85 degrees might seem an odd choice, so could the fire have been set? Phillips said that his assistant fire marshal has listed the fire as undetermined in origin.
“We don’t know who the people were who were trying to live there,” said Phillips.
Phillips said Charlottesville Parks & Recreation has already begun cleaning its side of the fence and that Woodard appears to be doing the same.
“At this time we’re trying to figure out a plan to get it cleaned up,” Anthony Woodard, who manages the tract for the family-owned property manager and developer, told The Daily Progress.
Woodard said that the prompt fire department response prevented a much larger fire and he was disappointed to learn that among the debris left in the wake of the blaze were hypodermic needles and propane tanks.
“Needles and propane tanks in a fire is not a good combo,” said Woodard.
On this land in late 2022, Woodard Properties joined forces with various groups, including the surrounding neighborhood and the Rivanna Trails Foundation, to unveil the Fifeville Community Trail. The leafy pathway allows nearby residents to walk to Cherry Avenue, Tonsler Park and other city attractions without worry of the four-lane, 40 mph traffic that clogs nearby Fifth Street.
Woodard said that he learned of the encampment just hours before the blaze and sent word to the site that it needed to be cleared.
“We went out and notified the campers to depart the property just a few hours before the fire started,” said Woodard. “At the time of that notification, there was no campfire.”
The fire marshal said the absence of known witnesses will hamper the investigation.
“I just know that nobody was there during the fire,” said Phillips.
This is not the first report of a fire at a homeless encampment the fire marshal has received.
“I run homeless campfires a lot,” Phillips said, “Down near Free Bridge we get smoke-in-the-area calls all the time, and we have to go down there and ask them to put it out.”
While Charlottesville has a standing ban on outdoor burning, Phillips recently had to deal with some indoor burning.
His office has been investigating the March 27 blaze inside the building that houses Revolutionary Soup on the Downtown Mall. An early report suggested that a homeless man may have built that fire to stay warm.
“That one’s still under investigation,” said Phillips. “We are still interviewing and waiting on lab results.”
Source: www.dailyprogress.com