SALT LAKE CITY — The cause of this week’s Sandhurst 2 Fire in Salt Lake City remains under investigation.
In the aftermath of that blaze, a collaborative effort began to clean up a series of homeless camps near the fire.
Salt Lake City Police, working with the Salt Lake County health department and using a DPS helicopter, spent most of Friday removing tons of tents and trash from the hillside.
Georg Stutzenberger has lived near Ensign Peak for the past 26 years and said it’s like Groundhog Day; there’s a fire, then homeless camps are cleaned up, then there’s another fire.
“To me, it’s outrageous. Hope not but one day somebody’s gonna get hurt or even killed because of this. It’s just not acceptable," said Stutzenberger.
Stutzenberger lives above the Utah capital on Columbus Street, just a few hundred yards from Wednesday’s fire.
He said that every summer, there are concerns about brush fires.
He took several photos of one of the worst fires ever in the area, on Pioneer Day 2018.
That’s when flames nearly reached his street.
“One day we’re going to have a fire and it’s going to hit buildings up there," he said.
Salt Lake City Police Chief of Staff Glen Mills believes they are doing all that can be done to protect the area.
“The public expects us to keep these areas safe and clean, and that’s what we intend to do. And we want to do so with an approach of both accountability and compassion," he said.
While the cause of the Sandhurst 2 Fire has yet to be determined, Mills said they are worked with other agencies and wasted no time cleaning up the area.
“This is something we’ve been working on for several months now. Not only in this location, but in others, it’s just illegal to camp in these areas and we can’t allow it to happen," he said.
A total of 15 people were escorted off Ensign Peak on Thursday and Friday, and four of them went to jail.
