SAN DIEGO — A fire broke out after midnight Sunday at a home in Grant Hill at 2847 K Street, and this is not the first time a fire has started at the address. Neighbors say it’s a problem that has gotten out of control in recent months.
“We saw the flames; they were almost as big as the two-story apartment,” said one neighbor, who wants to remain anonymous. “It was big.”
People living nearby say they are used to waking up in the middle of the night to flames, fire trucks, and smoke billowing from the vacant home.
“We’re so close to the property that we just wake up every night thinking that there will be a fire again,” said another neighbor, who also wants to be unnamed.
CBS 8’s Brian White walked around to the back of the property where the latest fire occurred and found boarded-up windows and debris all over the ground.
“This has been an eyesore for this community in Grant Hill,” said Carlos Delgado, whose sister lives nearby. “This home has burned more than twelve times in just the last few months, and there are squatters; in fact, there are squatters in there right now.”
CBS 8 was on the scene in October when the house caught fire in the middle of the day. The home was deemed a total loss then and has been red-tagged by the City of San Diego ever since, but the owner doesn’t seem to be doing anything about it.
“It’s an absent owner,” said Delgado. “It’s been vacant for years, and all of a sudden, squatters have taken over, and the city isn’t doing much. They’re sending fire trucks to put the fires out, but that’s it.” Regarding why situations like this occur, co-founder of Housing 4 the Homeless, Amie Zamudio, sums it up in two words.
“Policy failure,” said Zamudio. “We talk about homelessness, but we aren’t serious about solving this.”
According to Zamudio, with so many people living on the streets and not enough shelter options, things like this will keep happening.
“People experiencing homelessness need a place to go, and we are gravely short on providing safe options,” said Zamudio.
Meanwhile, neighbors on K Street are on edge, waiting for the subsequent fire.
“It’s super concerning; we have a lot of valuable properties around that property, so we don’t want the fire to catch our properties,” said Andres Rodriguez, who has lived in the neighborhood for more than 25 years.
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