Troy homeless camp catches fires, City officials react

TROY, N.Y. (NEWS10) – Last night a homeless encampment fire endangered first responders and the surrounding community in Troy. NEWS10 spoke with local officials and to the homeless person involved, now without a camp, on what’s being done to ensure everyone’s safety.

The woman who claims to live there says she thinks this was arson.  “I’ve lived here in the woods actually for about a year now. They’ve made us move three different times. And this time me and my boyfriend went out on our date night, which is at a soup kitchen, honestly. And we’re only gone an hour. And we came home to our tent in flames,” said the homeless woman.

There’s a growing concern for safety in Troy after the fire department responded to the homeless encampment fire which involved some explosions.  “Last night was deep in a wooded area so that in itself is different for us trudged through a wooded area in our gear to get to a location that we can’t see so we don’t even really know what we have.” said Troy Fire Chief, Richard Cellucci. He also said his crews and neighbors heard popping noises that were a concern. “They did hear some things popping off so to speak I wouldn’t really classify them as major explosions but just some kind of popping off so they were a little concerned about what they would be approaching.” 

Since Mayor Carmella Mantello took office, she says her Quality-of-Life Team has helped relocate these folks as best as possible.  But some of the homeless have not appreciated this. “The first thing she did is mayor was targeting the homeless and I don’t understand why. I think there’s far much bigger problems in Troy than the homeless people,” said the homeless woman.  

Mayor Mantello said, “The fact of the matter is it puts our community in danger and our job as an elected we want to find shelter, food, respectable shower, bathroom for these folks. But at the same time we can’t let these encampments you know, harm our community.”

Amy LaFountain Executive Director at Joseph’s House says her team is doing all they can to help the homeless community. “Our Troy Outreach team goes to all these places where people could potentially be staying outside, and we make sure they know what’s available and it’s for them to choose if they want that or if they’re ready for it,” said LaFountain.

However, some folks feel that we can all do a little better when it comes to a shared community.  “I’m hoping for the best. We’ll see. I definitely don’t want anything bad to happen,” said one Troy resident.

“We all can do more for humanity. I think that there should be more food programs, food insecurity is real. Housing insecurity, even myself I just trying to look for a living around it can be tough. And I’m someone who graduated with a degree,” said another Troy Resident.

 Nonetheless, Mantello says she is committed to keeping residents safe. “We cannot allow what happened last night to turn into something even much, much more catastrophic,” said Mantello.