KINGSTON — Firefighters responded to a fire at a tent at the homeless encampment in Belle Park Tuesday evening.
The fire — the second of the day at the encampment — began shortly after 6 p.m. within sight of the parking lot at the Integrated Care Hub, where the Katarokwi Union of Tenants was hosting a barbecue for encampment residents.
A pair of firefighters quickly put the fire out and no injuries were reported.
Earlier in the day, the fire department issued a threat to life notice at an encampment on land owned by the provincial government near the onramp to the westbound Highway 401 Sir John A. Macdonald Boulevard.
“The safety of people living in camps outside and in different parts of the community remains of utmost concern,” Chief Fire Prevention Officer Ted Posadowski said in a news release Tuesday night. “Today we issued another immediate threat to life notice, we really are focused on doing everything possible to keep people safe.”
Firefighters removed two open-air appliances, one propane appliance and three propane cylinders, a gasoline container and cooking pots used for burning items.
Kingston firefighters have responded to several fires a week at Belle Park and the area around the Integrated Care Hub in recent months.
In response, Kingston Fire and Rescue and the city have been enforcing the Fire Protection and Fire Prevention Act by removing heating sources and clearing debris from encampments across the city.
Ivan Stoiljkovic of the Katarokwi Union of Tenants rejected the city’s and fire department’s concerns about safety at the encampments.
“It’s ridiculous. People are a lot safer in their tents than outside freezing, you know,” Stoiljkovic said, pointing to a court decision last year that ruled against the city’s efforts to get an injunction against the encampments.
“It’s illegal. Completely illegal,” Stoiljkovic said about the city’s efforts to close the encampments.
“For years they’ve been trying to find ways to enforce the parks bylaw or the encampment protocol, they’re coming up with all kinds of procedural things, wasting everybody’s time and money in order to do something which is they’re clearly not allowed to do,” he said.
Last week, the city announced plans to begin enforcing an existing ban on camping in city parks during the day.
Stoiljkovic vowed not to let the city evict any encampment residents.
“They’re gonna change their course,” he said.
A handful of homeless advocates attended Tuesday night’s city council meeting but left after shouting “stop the war on the poor.”