Oregon Public Broadcasting

Firefighters in Bend responded to a rapidly spreading grass fire Thursday in a vacant lot. 

Investigators say an unattended cooking fire started the half-acre blaze.  About a dozen homeless people have been camping on the lot.

Jacob Calhoun says things could have been a lot worse.  He and his girlfriend were sleeping in their tent when the fire began to whip though the tall dry grass surrounding a neighboring camp a few hundred yards away.

Jacob Calhoun: “I woke up and I looked over there and there’s just billowing smoke and I said, 'Everybody get your stuff now.  Let’s go.'”

Calhoun is 26, but he looks a bit older than that.  He says he used to work construction when times were better.  He explains that in general people in the camp try not to cause trouble. 

Jacob Calhoun: “Homeless have been ran out for a long time and we finally got permission from the owner to actually stay here as long as we kept clean camps and we had hibachis or Webbers so there’s no fires.  And now that this happened, we’re just waiting for the owner to come and kick us out, which we pretty much know that’s what’s going to happen.”

OPB tried to call owner of the mobile home park to ask what would happen to the homeless living on the property.  But that number is no longer current.