Multiple fires ignited Tuesday at large homeless encampments in Anchorage's Mountain View neighborhood as officials attempted to clear out campers.
Mayor Suzanne LaFrance announced at the end of May that the city would abate the encampments on Tuesday. The camps are two of the largest in Anchorage, once home to roughly 100 people.
On Tuesday morning, a contingent of campers remained. They put out signs that read "No trespassing," "We are all the same kind people," "We feel as we have to fight for ours wouldn't you do the same" and "Coming for a neighborhood near you."
About a dozen Anchorage police were there, as well as LaFrance, a clean-up team, fire officials, the Mobile Crisis Team, protesters and others. Officers walked through the camps and gave everyone 20 minutes to leave. At the same time, outreach officials also walked through the tents to encourage people to move into shelter and to offer other services, including rehab.
Then around 11:15 a.m., a fire sparked on one side of the encampments. Roughly 15 minutes later, a second blaze ignited on the other side. You could hear propane tanks bursting throughout the camps.
Firefighters with the Anchorage Fire Department and Alaska Division of Forestry quickly responded.
Fire Chief Doug Schrage said his department had been prepared because it was easy to imagine people starting fires as an act of defiance.
"These people are, you know, being forced away from their encampments and appropriately so," he said. "And it's not surprising that somebody would act out this way."
Officials said a total of five fires were reported in the area Tuesday, all of them related to the encampments.
"Three structures had burned behind some ball fields," said fire department spokeswoman Megan Peters. "One fire was in the snow dump area, and it appears that another structure fire started across another field in the Davis Park area."
Neither the origin nor cause of the fires had immediately been determined Tuesday afternoon, Peters said, but police were at the park interviewing witnesses.
Schrage said he had not gotten reports of any injuries.
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Editor's note: This story has been updated with reports of additional fires.
