Hobo Fortress Burned Down News by Michael C. Hild - February 12, 2016February 12, 201613 Where you have trains, you have hobos and train jumpers. Where you have large cities, you have the homeless. And no matter how unpleasant to the eye, or inconvenient their presence might seem to some, the folks living in these conditions are human beings. I saw a recent posting on Reddit that made mention of a large hobo tent village close to the SunTrust Mortgage building that burned and decided to do some research. Here is the original post from Reddit: “My lunch run took me on the trail over near the south side SunTrust building. The hobo camp I’ve written up when I found it while running in the fall seems to have met its end. There’s a small remnant of melted tarp still hanging, but the rest of it is burned tarp, chairs and various detritus. Must’ve been a hell of a blaze as the tree limbs anywhere close are scorched and blackened. I really need to start carrying my phone for pictures when I run.” There are also multiple other comments of folks who saw the smoke from the fire, or who smelled the burning plastic. I have checked with the police and there were no reports or calls to assist the fire department. So for now, it remains quite a mystery as to what happened. Did someone intentionally set the fire to make the encampment go away? Did one of the residents accidentally set the fire? If anyone has information a bout the incident, please let us know.
the people “living” in these camps have small fires going all the time. they also smoke cigarettes and have a large amount of trash and other flammables littered around their camps. it was probably unintentional/accidental, but begs the question of the safety of these camps and if they should be allowed to be there or not. Reply
The fire was intentional but thankfully no one was hurt. This particular camp was immaculate — their “yard” was cleaner than many homeowners’ yards. They never had a bunch of garbage strewn everywhere. Reply
If this is the one by SunTrust, I spoke to the “hobos” and it was set on fire by rival hobos trying to smoke them out. Drama, basically. But they are OK and have moved camp. Reply
Yes there are several camps around SunTrust Joshua. One is close to the parking lot for the river walk at the on ramp from 7th on to the Manchester Bridge. That’s the one I think you’re referring to above. There is another one on the other side of SunTrust near the on ramp to the Lee Bridge. Reply
