Large fire tears through homeless encampment at Quirky Books

Digging through blackened debris with a butter knife, a man searched for anything that might have survived a large fire that tore through a homeless encampment along East Central on Monday night.

What he managed to collect was a handful of ash-covered pennies.

The man's tent, along with four others, burned — the flames torched what few belongings people had left, including documents like birth certificates, clothes and cellphones. No one was injured in the blaze.

That homeless encampment, situated in the parking lot of a used bookstore off Central, has become a microcosm for the city’s struggles with mounting homelessness and the dilemma of addressing it.

Quirky Books’ owner, Gillam Kerley, insists that he’s helping people who have nowhere else to go, while the city and surrounding business owners say that his approach is enabling drug use and violence.

The people who live there say they’re doing their best to survive.

David Stone, who has lived on the street for three years, looked on as a handful of volunteers scraped sinewy burnt plastic from the asphalt.

“This is why I don't keep anything anymore, because it can all be gone in an instant,” Stone said.

Stone described the fire as a “huge wall of flame” that quickly engulfed several tents and burned all the way up to the telephone wire overhead. Stone didn’t know what started the fire. 

Albuquerque Fire Rescue, when asked, didn't know either.

AFR spokesperson Lt. Jason Fejer said a fire truck was dispatched around 9 p.m. Monday and the fire was put out before it could spread to neighboring buildings. Fejer said investigators were unable to determine the cause or whether the fire was intentional or accidental.

The scene was "compromised" before an investigation could be conducted, Fejer said, as people went back to the scene after the fire and before evidence was secured by AFR investigators.

The only known surveillance videos of the incident had no visibility of people within the encampment, Fejer said, meaning that AFR has nothing to build a case on.

If any “workable” evidence surfaces, Fejer said that AFR will do further investigation.

Kerley said he believes the fire was accidental and is relieved no one was hurt.

“I’m extremely grateful for the people who came out to help,” Kerley said of volunteers who worked to clean the site Tuesday morning.

Kerley said that he will “make changes” for safety after the fire, but is unsure what those changes will be.

His neighbor, Alfredo Barrenechea, believes that the change needed is simple — shut it down.

Barrenechea owns Absolute Investment Realty, which shares a property line with Quirky, and now, a burnt and warped sheet metal fence.

Though neighbors have repeatedly complained about the site for more than a year, tensions seem to be rising.

In November, police responded to a fatal shooting, making this fire just the latest incident.

“He ruined this entire neighborhood, single-handedly,” Barrenechea said of Kerley.

Meanwhile, Edward Fitzgerald, another neighbor, stood outside his office watching the scene of devastation directly across the street.

“People are trying to help, but how do you help and what’s effective?” he said. “If you really want to help people, this isn’t helping them.”

The scene he sees every day — people hunched over and inattentive to the world living in tents without heating or plumbing — is anything but compassionate, he said.

“I’m at my breaking point,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s like the zombie apocalypse.”

The city also thinks the encampment is unsafe and has been trying to shut it down since November when it asked a judge to declare the property a “public nuisance” due to alleged drug use and criminal activity.

“It is time for this to come to an end,” said City Attorney Lauren Keefe in a statement forwarded by a city spokesperson Tuesday. “A judge has already ruled that Quirky Books is breaking the law. And the situation is becoming increasingly dangerous.”

In response to the fire, Keefe said in the statement that the city is filing another motion in its ongoing lawsuit, demanding that the encampment be closed immediately.

“There are beds available in the Gateway System right now,” Keefe said. “There is no justification for continuing to maintain this unlawful and dangerous encampment.”

There are approximately 1,300 shelter beds citywide but nearly 3,000 people experiencing homelessness in Albuquerque, according to a recent point-in-time count by the Coalition to End Homelessness.

Still, even in the cold of winter, there are often beds left empty in city shelters. Whatever the reason, be it sobriety requirements, lack of accommodation for pets, or otherwise, something is turning away the majority of people living on the streets.

Stone said, for himself and many homeless people, the city feels like an adversary. And the city coming down so hard on the encampment, the only place where they feel wanted, isn’t helping.

“It's illegal to set up a tent in Albuquerque,” Stone said. “Doesn’t make any sense to me, it's illegal to survive.”

Gillian Barkhurst is the local government reporter for the Journal. She can be reached at gbarkhurst@abqjournal.com or on Twitter @G_Barkhurst.