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# Homeless encampment ignites fire on SM bluffs
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/homeless-encampment-ignites-fire-on-sm-bluffs/
- Published: 2004-08-05T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T04:47:44.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Community, Pacific Palisades, #archive-import, Homeless

*Traffic backs up throughout the city*

*By JOHN F. MULLER Special to the Daily Press*

PALISADES BLUFFS — A transient campfire likely caused the blaze that engulfed about an acre here Wednesday morning, officials said. No one was injured.

The fire, which covered a steep section of the bluffs below Marguerita Avenue shut down miles of the Pacific Coast Highway and a portion of the 10 Freeway during morning rush hour. As a result, traffic jams occurred throughout Santa Monica with motorists using secondary roads as alternative routes.

More than 30 firefighters, including three Santa Monica engines and a mutual aid crew from Los Angeles County were called to the scene at 7:56 a.m., said SMFD Chief Kent Coble. Coble’s crew extinguished the fire by 10 a.m. The PCH and the 10 Freeway were opened at about 9 a.m.

“It was time consuming work,” Coble said. “It’s pretty treacherous down there.”

There were no witnesses, but the fire likely started in one of the transient encampments on top of the bluffs near the 500 block of Ocean Avenue, Coble said. He added that he’s had to fight fires on the bluffs with similar causes on numerous occasions over the course of his career.

The blaze comes a little more than two months after the City Council passed a law forbidding any person to be present on the bluffs because of the safety concerns posed by a transient population that often sleeps and stores belongings in the tunnels, caves and shelves within the slopes.

In explaining the need for the new law this past spring, officials pointed to the instability of the dry cliffs, trash and the potential fire hazards posed by transient encampments.

Mayor Richard Bloom said he had few concerns with the city’s enforcement policies.

“As far as I know, the law is being enforced,” Bloom said. “It’s a new law, so typically with most new laws we begin with warnings, and then the enforcement gets steeper over time. With regard to this fire, if it is the case that it was a cooking fire that caused the fire, then it validates the important safety reason for having the law in place.”

Santa Monica Police Department Lt. Frank Fabrega said the department has been enforcing the law through sweeps of the bluff area. He said SMPD issues an average of 10 misdemeanor citations a month to violators camping on the bluffs. Park rangers and city employees who work in Palisades Park often see people on the bluffs and call the police, Fabrega said. That’s when a special SMPD team which works with the local homeless population will go to the scene and cite the campers, forcing them leave.

The department also does sweeps of the area every three months with Tru Green, a company contracted with the city to clean up the area, Fabrega said. The team collects trash, debris and any abandoned objects like mattresses and other furniture, he said.

Over the years, the city has made efforts to keep people off of the bluffs with a fence that extends the length of Palisades Park, between the Santa Monica Pier and the city’s northern border. There also are signs posted telling people to keep out of the area.

City Councilman Kevin Mc- Keown said the problem with transients on the bluff shouldn’t only be attributed to enforcement.

“We are obviously short on shelter space,” he said. “People should not be on those bluffs for their own safety and the community’s safety. But, in trying to move them off the bluffs we need to remember that they’re people too and that they need a place to live. It’s clearly an unsafe situation for all of us.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 5, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/080504.pdf?ref=smdp.com)