Vagrants may have accidentally started NYC’s Prospect Park fire: sources
Homeless people camped out in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park may have ignited the weekend blaze that torched two wooded acres in the urban oasis, The Post has learned.
Law-enforcement sources said there are indications that vagrants staying in a remote part of the park might have accidentally sparked the flames, which later engulfed a rolling meadow known as the Nethermead.
Fire officials said Sunday that they still have no official cause of the Friday night brush blaze.
It took more than 100 firefighters to snuff out the fire, which exploded during a lengthy stretch of historically dry weather that’s left the parched landscape primed for burns.
“It’s a very labor-intensive operation,” an FDNYrep said of efforts to contain the blaze. “It’s just this steep terrain, windy conditions. The fire can move rapidly.”
Several locals told The Post that they’d seen the homeless camped out in the area and that they wouldn’t be surprised if they were the cause.
“There are at least five encampments where these guys hang out,” said Thomas Mason, a retired 56-year-old who lives nearby, on Sunday.
“Sometimes there’s more. … Nobody really goes into these wooded areas except for the homeless guys,” he said. “The park rangers come through here but in cars. And they only hand out dog-walking tickets — you know, for a dog off the leash.”
Max Shamash, a 33-year-old artist from Fort Greene, said he’d taken a look at the burn site on top of the hill and noted that it was littered with trash.
“There’s hundreds of beer cans, suitcases, baby carriages, AC units — it’s like a junkyard that burnt,” he said, adding that there were also a “bunch of spray-paint bottles that exploded.”
Someone first called the Fire Department about the blaze at about 6:40 p.m. Friday, which prompted the FDNY to send in special brush-fire units and drones.
No one was hurt, officials said.
Mayor Eric Adams praised an onlooker for swiftly reporting the fire.
“We were extremely lucky by the passer-by who saw something but also did something,” Adams said Friday night. “They notified the FDNY, and there was a quick response.”
Marc Palmer, a 74-year-old building inspector who lives right next to the park, agreed with the mayor about the FDNY’s speedy work.
“The Fire Department put it out really quickly,” he said. “That’s the first brush fire around here that I can think of in the past 40 or 50 years.”
A 66-year-old woman who has lived in nearby Windsor Terrace since the 1980s said park rangers should get back to patrolling the area with horses instead of patrol cars.
“The rangers patrolling on horseback really did make a difference,” she said. “Driving through is pointless. They don’t even get out of the cars.
“It really did make it safer and better for everyone,” she continued of horse patrols. “I really wish they’d bring that back and get rid of these fences [in the park], because all that they’re doing is creating a habitat where homeless people can set up tents and no one will bother them.”
