Please take care of fire hazard near SLO’s train tracks

We now know that wildfires are not confined to forests and hillsides; they can happen in neighborhoods, too. As someone living near the train tracks in San Luis Obispo, I cannot help worrying about the risk posed to all of us by the buildup of dead vegetation on our railroad right-of-way.

Frighteningly close to French Hospital, our homes and our high school is a dense mat of decades of leaves from the many scrub oaks that have been allowed to proliferate. These pile up against fences along with years of dead vegetation that has been cut but not removed.

Add to that the lighted cigarette butts from people walking by, or that passengers discard when they hear the “all aboard” call, as well as the trash, abandoned furniture, sleeping bags and mattresses that get dragged into the mix, and we are creating fuel for another tragedy. We who live in the immediate area have neither the right nor the resources to go onto that land to fix this. Perhaps the cities or the county working with the railroad can attack this and provide a reasonable margin of safety.

This story was originally published October 30, 2017 at 8:14 AM with the headline "Please take care of fire hazard near SLO’s train tracks."