Police, BVSD upping patrols following series of tent fires
Police and Boulder Valley School District security are upping patrols in downtown Boulder after a series of tent fires along Arapahoe Avenue sparked increased tension over encampments in the area.
Officials confirmed tent fires along Arapahoe Avenue between Broadway and 17th Street on Thursday, Friday and Tuesday, with Boulder-fire Rescue officials saying propane tank explosions were involved in at least two of the incidents.
Two of the fires impacted Boulder High School students, with the fire on Friday forcing athletes to turn around after encountering the fire near a multi-use path and the fire on Tuesday forcing students to evacuate nearby Recht Field. The incidents prompted a letter from the Boulder Valley School District to Boulder High students and parents.
“As you may have seen in the media, there have been several fires that Boulder Fire Department has had to put out in the tent encampments, just outside of the western boundary of our school property,” the letter read. “Given these developments, we are working with our partners in the city of Boulder to increase measures to ensure the safety of our students.
“Regularly patrolling our campus is standard practice, with our school based security staff monitoring the exterior of our campus on a daily basis. Starting (Wednesday), BVSD Security will be increasing their presence on campus to monitor the primary paths adjacent to campus that students use to get to and from school.”
The letter also said “Boulder will be implementing changes to their unsanctioned campsite clean-up practices within the next few weeks and will update city council and the community about these efforts at the April 13 council meeting.”
Meanwhile, Boulder by Wednesday had cleared out a homeless encampment southeast of the intersection of Arapahoe Avenue and Broadway, but spokeswoman Shannon Aulabaugh said police will still have extra patrols in the area.
“We will continue to place resources in this area,” Aulabaugh said.
While city officials said clearing out encampments is a last resort “when occupants refuse to vacate and resist homeless outreach services,” advocates questioned exactly what sort of resources were offered.
“Boulder ordering our fellow citizens to leave won’t magically make more housing appear,” ACLU of Colorado Legal Director Tim Macdonald said in a statement. “With no day shelter, inadequate overnight shelter, no safe outdoor camping spaces, and an inaccessible housing market — Boulder does not explain where they think people should go. Boulder also does not explain what the ‘outreach’ it claims it did looked like here. What specific options were turned down or ‘resisted’ by the people Boulder will displace? Boulder needs real answers for where people can safely, autonomously, exist — with the dignity and respect every human deserves.”
Attorney Dan Williams, who is working with the ACLU on a challenge of Boulder’s camping ban, noted that a 2022 survey found 93% to 99% of unhoused people in Denver wanted a place to stay.
“So I wonder what resources they offered, because it wasn’t housing,” Williams said.
Williams said lack of day shelters and limited bed space at the Boulder Shelter for the Homeless left the unhoused with few options.
“What they’re doing is just moving people from one place to the next, because there is literally no where indoors for them to go.”