UPDATE: ‘Brush fire’ at EC Hughes park

11:37 AM: SFD is at a “brush fire” call in the EC Hughes Playground (28th/Holden) vicinity and we’re told smoke is visible from some distance, so in case you’re wondering too, that’s what’s happening. We’re headed over for a look.

11:42 AM: Texter (who sent the video added above, showing the smoke) says it’s on the SW Kenyon side, near homes. Fire risk is high – checking the weather stats, we note that the rainfall total is nine inches below what we’d normally have in the “rain year” (since October 1).

12:01 PM: Kenyon is blocked at EC Hughes. Firefighters are still hosing down the southwest side of the park.

12:33 PM: SFD has departed and Kenyon is open again. (Added: Photo above shows scorched slope on southwest side of the park, past the baseball field.)

W July 28, 2025 (12:01 pm)

This was at the exact location of an encampment I reported about 2 weeks ago via the Find It. Fix It app. People have been moving in and out over the past week. Not a surprise this happened. Luckily the fire dept arrived quickly and it didn’t spread to the houses.

Neighbor July 28, 2025 (1:08 pm)

I saw the encampment there yesterday. Hopefully the person sleeping there is ok. Their stuff definitely isn’t.

Sarah July 28, 2025 (12:53 pm)

I reported that encampment as well around the same time. If removal of the encampment that used to be right next to the EC Hughes playground is any indication – city will do nothing about this for at least a year.

C July 28, 2025 (5:58 pm)

FYI RE: reporting encampments – we live nearby EC Hughes and the earlier encampment that was adjacent to the bathroom building 10 feet from the playground – I reported several times on the Fix It app. It wasn’t addressed until months later when we saw the person emerge and wander around the block yelling obscenities and in the midst of a mental crisis that we called the police and then within days the encampment was removed.

EJ July 28, 2025 (7:14 pm)

I have noticed progress in getting these encampments cleaned up more quickly, but more needs to be done. These encampment sites are magnets for crime (drug use, theft, shootings, harassment, etc.), and environmental damage (human waste, litter, fires, etc.). It’s dry as a bone out there, and all it takes is one more “accident” like this to spark a large fire that threatens structures. Enough is enough.

1994 July 28, 2025 (9:57 pm)

Fire risk is very high. My local bus stop has a number of cigarette butts tossed down on top of tinder dry grasses and weeds with a giant laurel shrub right there too…..hope the smoker is extra cautious with stomping out their butts.

Neighbors August 4, 2025 (8:31 am)

This encampment had been around for months, with the residents spreading trash and other unmentionables all around the park on a daily basis. City ignored the problem and just kept closing reports saying that “the encampment appeared to be vacated”, it’s a damn shame this is how it ended. Very glad it didn’t spread to the homes up the hill.

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