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A fire destroyed a recreational vehicle early Monday morning at a Mountain View safe parking lot that offers parking space and services for people living in their vehicles. No injuries were reported in the blaze, which caused $20,000 in estimated damages to the vehicle and its contents.
On Monday, Dec. 12, at 12:38 a.m., Mountain View Fire was dispatched after a 911 call reported flames coming out of an RV parked at the Shoreline Amphitheatre Parking Lot B on Crittenden Lane, according to a Mountain View Fire Department press release.
Occupants of other RVs heard the resident of the burning RV yelling for help, but he had escaped the vehicle via a rear window before firefighters arrived.
Neighbors moved nearby RVs to prevent the spread of the flames and firefighters doused the fire, which was contained to the one vehicle, fire officials said. Crews determined that the fire was caused by improper storage of a heating device.
The Shoreline lot is part of the safe parking program operated by social services nonprofit Move Mountain View in partnership with the city. The safe parking program includes fire prevention measures, the fire department release noted.
Move Mountain View serves those living in vehicles in Santa Clara County “due to a combination of challenges,” and that a majority of the participants are “neighbors who have wrestled with affording Bay Area housing due to medical hardships, loss of job or reduction in work hours, or other unexpected financial hurdles,” according to the organization’s website.
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So much for ‘safe’ parking. Aren’t these RVs inspected before being admitted to the program? Why didn’t the Voice post the photos provided by the MVFD showing the devastation of this fire? If this occurred on city streets crowded with RVs it would have been a real disaster. The adult male resident of the burning RV was heard yelling for help but left the scene before making contact with fire department (?). This is 2nd RV fire, in 4 months. Combustible materials, faulty wiring, heating and septic systems are a huge risk to public safety, ignored by the City of Mountain View.
@MyOpinion Absolutely right about it would have been a disaster if were on a city street. Particularly if adjacent RV’s were not in operable condition.
The RV’s not being inspected is direct byproduct of California’s “Housing First” initiative which seeks to remove most bureaucratic barriers to housing the homeless. That sounds great on paper, but it means that safety inspections of RV’s won’t happen. If that was a criteria for program entry, half the RV’s wouldn’t pass and occupants would just end up on public streets anyway.
It probably didn’t occur to the safe parking program operator to have sites (even church lots) require a fire extinguisher nearby. Fortunately this site is right next to a fire station. Search google news for “rv fire” and you’ll be horrified how many people die like this each year.
This could happen to anyone houses get burn also people talked like omg rvs are not safe