Edmonton Police and Fire Respond to Encampments with Weapons, Waste, and Fire Pits
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
246.44714
Summary
In this episode, we talk about the growing problem of people setting up camp in the city's parks and recreation areas, and the dangers of leaving them unattended in the cold weather. We also talk about how to keep them safe, and what to do if they are left unattended.
Transcript
00:00:00.960
I wouldn't say that it's getting busier because it's getting colder. We are finding larger
00:00:04.600
encampments and more entrenched encampments as people are trying to set in for the wintertime.
00:00:08.940
We're in a Poundmakers area just off of 184th Street and 105th Avenue in a very frequently
00:00:14.640
reoccupied encampment area. Yeah, it is very spread out. There's actually a total of about
00:00:19.060
four or five sites all within a couple of hundred meters of each other here and we're actually
00:00:22.960
located this site after cleaning up or in the middle of cleaning up and closing a very large
00:00:27.660
one just down the road on the transit utility corridor. This is a cattle prod. Obviously the
00:00:33.020
materials that are around here, he was planning on building something better than just a tarp
00:00:37.180
structure or a tent. Building parts as well, like these are all stolen tires off of wheelchairs. He
00:00:41.320
has rolls and rolls and stacks of insulation around here, fresh brand new clean building materials which
00:00:46.160
we're not sure where he might have obtained it from. He's obviously planning on building something that
00:00:50.120
was going to probably try to get him through the winter instead of using the resources that the
00:00:53.380
city provides him. I'm worried about the risks of if he, like we have evidence of the fires that
00:00:57.940
are around here. If they're left unattended, what could end up happening to the treed area?
00:01:03.120
Can end up going up in flames? We have evidence of multiple trees that have been scorched and burnt
00:01:06.860
in the area and just earlier today we located a gentleman who had just recently used fentanyl,
00:01:12.160
passed out right beside his fire. He was actually blue in the lips. I was afraid that he'd passed away
00:01:15.700
but then once I was able to wake him up, he just wanted to get out of the area as quick as possible
00:01:19.960
but he was right beside a smoldering fire that could have easily caught him or the area around
00:01:24.240
him on fire. That's one of the concerns about having these remote encampments off to the side
00:01:27.680
is that there's no one here to check on them. One, if they've used too much and there's no one there
00:01:31.160
to use Nalaxone or Narcan on them to be able to hopefully bring them back or on top of that there's
00:01:36.180
no one attending to their site. So again, if they catch fire, stuff around them catches fire and if
00:01:40.700
they're passed out from drug use or they're overdosing then there's no one to help them in any
00:01:44.760
situation. So that's why we try to get them into centralized areas where there's emergency shelters,
00:01:48.760
resources, the navigation center, places like that where people they can at least keep an eye on
00:01:53.260
each other or at least someone keeping an eye on them.