2 more fires burn at Oakland Wood St. homeless encampment

OAKLAND -- Two separate fires burned at a homeless encampment in Oakland Tuesday, which has been the site of numerous fires and is currently the subject of a dispute between the city and the State of California.

The first fire at the Wood Street encampment was originally reported at about 7:30 a.m. Tuesday and was quickly extinguished.  A second fire broke out just before noon and was also extinguished in minutes. At least one RV was seen engulfed in flames and plume of smoke was seen rising from the site situated under the MacArthur Maze highway interchange.

The city of Oakland said last month it does not have the capacity to shelter all of the roughly 200 people at the encampment.

Last Thursday a letter from Gov. Newsom's office accused Oakland of "seeking to shirk its responsibility" by claiming Caltrans is responsible for a portion of the encampment. The letter threatened to take away millions of dollars in state funding.      

A temporary restraining order currently blocks Caltrans from clearing the area; the agency is expected to lay out a new plan at a court hearing on Friday.

The Wood St. encampment has been the scene of countless fires in recent years; before Tuesday's fires, the most recent was on July 11. Oakland fire officials said about 100 fires of various sizes and severity have occurred at the camp between April 2021 and July 1 of this year. One person died in a fire in April.