An apparent vagrant encampment in Paul Ridley’s District 14 was destroyed in a substantial fire just after 7:30 p.m. Sunday.
The site on the edge of Interstate 45 contained more than a dozen shopping carts filled with garbage and other materials. Two of these shopping carts and a tree were engulfed in flames, with a tower of dark smoke rising high into the sky.
The encampment was located on a narrow strip of grass between a chain link fence and the concrete barrier of an I-45 on ramp, directly behind a Starbucks location at 2103 N. Hall St.
A sign posted on the fence read, “No Trespassing. Violators Will Be Prosecuted.”
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A Dallas Police Department cruiser arrived minutes after the blaze began, followed shortly by a Dallas Fire-Rescue crew.
As the Dallas firefighters worked to control the growing flames, an apparently homeless woman approached the site in a state of emotional distress. The woman drew near to the fire, then turned to walk off in the direction of N. Hall St.
As she walked away, the woman was intercepted by the sole Dallas police officer on scene, Officer R. Beck.
Beck told The Dallas Express that the woman was not being detained. He noted that he had asked the Dallas Fire-Rescue personnel if they wanted to interview the woman about the incident, which they declined.
Dallas Fire-Rescue extinguished the blaze within ten minutes of arriving on the scene, leaving the large tree charred from top to bottom and multiple shopping carts, with their contents, destroyed.
The Dallas Express spoke with the woman, who identified herself as Leilani, and confirmed that the items destroyed in the fire had been hers and that she had been living in the encampment site.
She said that she had received word about the fire from a friend, who claimed to have seen another individual set the fire intentionally.
Officer Beck informed The Dallas Express that Leilani had an active City of Dallas arrest warrant but that he chose not to arrest her in light of the circumstances.
photo of the remaining encampment | Image by Jonathan Richie/The Dallas Express