Great Fires Everywhere: Climate Disasters and Homeless Scapegoats
By Austin Vertesch
Published March 29, 2026.
God gave Noah the rainbow sign
No more water but fire next time
Keep your hand on that plow, hold on[i]
On Saturday, May 24, 2025, while vacuuming my embarrassingly untidy Tucson apartment I glanced outside and was startled by a plume of smoke rising in the distance. After checking Twitter (currently known as X), I learned there was a fire burning in the dried-out Santa Cruz River near Cortaro Road.[ii] Scrolling through my feed, I was informed the fire was human-caused and the culprit was certainly a homeless individual. Being generally distrustful of social media’s collective wisdom, I next looked at the local news. I discovered that all the local sources I could find contained scant details, and none mentioned any homeless arsonist. While later statements made by North West Fire District confirmed the fire was likely human caused,[iii] the initial Twitter posts I read were all based on speculation without any evidence.
Countless times in the past, I have walked Loop along the Santa Cruz in this exact location. During these walks, I’d always encounter numerous pedestrians enjoying the trail and often would pass homeless folks generally minding their own business. While it is possible a homeless individual started the fire, it is also possible that someone using the loop for recreation started it with a careless cigarette, or that a bored group of teenagers started the fire seeking a juvenile form of excitement. Months later, I cannot find reports of any arrests. Consequently, this fire and the possible culprit that sparked it will likely fade into obscurity as time marches on.
Despite its relative insignificance, I believe the online response to the Cortaro fire warrants further discussion. To have a productive conversation about the homeless and fires requires two truths to be acknowledged: First, some of this anger stems from an actual source. Tucson Fire Department data shows that homeless individuals often start fires while cooking, attempting to stay warm, and smoking.[iv] These are all activities that would likely not cause a fire if conducted inside one’s home, but are more likely to escalate into a wildfire if conducted outside. Second, naturally occurring fires can, and will, be used as a cudgel to attack homeless populations. Figuring out how to prevent such attacks is increasingly salient considering (1) there is an uptick in wildfires due to climate change;[v] (2) the homeless population is increasing due to a variety of economic factors;[vi] and (3) many individuals in this country are increasingly resorting to violent rhetoric and actions to solve political issues.[vii] After reading these posts, I was unsettled––not only by the certainty of the posters, but also their belligerent and conspiratorial tones. Some of the more provocative posts stated things like:[viii]
“Hopefully the arsonist is found and beaten to a pulp as Tucson Judges Keep releasing people like this back into the community.”
“it’s the homeless since they’re getting pushed out. They’re rebelling.
“not homeless. it’s in formation. it’s an attack on America”
“I took these [photos] myself, no storms, had 2B human. We need 2 get rid the homeless encampments from our community before become LA! (Maybe that’s the plan?)”
“Get rid of the bums but this is Tucson nothing will happen.”
“You’ll never have a home if you keep burning them down.”
When it comes to the use of natural disasters to target unpopular groups, the saying “there is nothing new under the sun”[ix] is very apropos. After the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD—which left hundreds of Romans dead and thousands more homeless—emperor Nero opportunistically weaponized the fire as a pretext to arrest, torture, and execute hundreds of Christians in an effort to stop the growing influence of the nascent church.[x] Although I wish such scapegoating was a relic of antiquity, this is not the case: In a dark and ironic twist of fate after Hurricane Katrina, various prominent Christian leaders played the role of Nero and blamed the hurricane’s destruction on their LGBTQ neighbors.[xi] While the Cortaro fire and subsequent backlash were not nearly as destructive as these examples, the parallels are certainly notable and offer a glimpse into a troubling future.
When reading the social media posts that categorize the Cortaro fire as “an attack on America” or a “homeless rebellion,” I am also reminded of the Trump Administration’s recent invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.[xii] Last year, the Administration attempted to classify the immigration of individuals allegedly connected to the gang Tren de Aragua as an “invasion” in order to wield extraordinary executive powers.[xiii] Both the Trump Administration and posters use the same technique in which hyperbolic language is weaponized to create a permission structure that justifies an abnormally violent response.[xiv] In both cases, the stated emergency is dubious at best. The real emergency is not what is declared an emergency but is instead the declaration itself. Looking around the country, it is discouraging to see there are great fires everywhere. When scapegoating is rampant the meek are always the first to be scorched.
Personally, I do not have an answer on how to extinguish these flames. But the first step in solving a wicked problem is admitting the problem exists. In the United States, we live under a system that creates, and then dehumanizes, a large homeless population. This is a problem; it needs to be fixed.
[i] Pete Seeger, Hold On (Keep Your Hand on the Plow) (CD, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings 1998) (interpolation of an African American Hymn).
[ii] E.g., KGUN News Staff, Fires Burning Near Marana and Cortaro Road, Officials Say, KGUN 9 (May 24, 2025), https://www.kgun9.com/news/local-news/cortaro-fire-burning-near-marana-officials-say.
[iii] 13 News Staff, Up to $1,000 Reward Offered for Arrest of Person Responsible for Cortaro Fire, Kold (Updated May 30, 2025), https://www.kold.com/2025/05/30/1000-reward-offered-arrest-person-responsible-cortaro-fire/.
[iv] Chorus Nylander, N4T Investigators: Tucson Fire Department Data Shows Risk of Fires Tied to Homeless Activity, KVOA (June 2, 2025), https://www.kvoa.com/news/n4t-investigators-tucson-fire-department-data-shows-risk-of-fires-tied-to-homeless-activity/article_88d14c5b-b35b-41fe-b811-63db92146099.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_KVOA.
[v] Rebecca Dzombak, Wildfire Seasons Are Starting to Overlap. That Spells Trouble for Firefighters, N.Y. Times (Feb. 27, 2026), https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/climate/global-fire-weather.html.
[vi] Whitney Clark, As Annual Homeless Count Nears, Federal Report Shows Arizona’s Population Has Grown By 23%, AZ Fam. (Jan. 11, 2023), https://www.azfamily.com/2023/01/11/annual-homeless-count-nears-federal-report-shows-arizonas-population-has-grown-by-23/.
[vii] See Joseph Copeland & Jocelyn Kiley, Americans Say Politically Motivated Violence Is Increasing, and They See Many Reasons Why, Pew Rsch. Ctr. (Oct. 23, 2025), https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/10/23/americans-say-politically-motivated-violence-is-increasing-and-they-see-many-reasons-why/.
[viii] Screenshots from both X and Tik Tok are on file with the author. Furthermore, I want to note my goal with this article is not to dogpile random users but instead to examine a larger trend.
[ix] Ecclesiastes 1:9 (New International).
[x] Nero’s Rome Burns, History.com (Nov. 13, 2009), https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/july-19/neros-rome-burns.
[xi] Thomas Lecaque, The Link Between Hurricane Katrina and Anti-LGBTQ Rhetoric, Dame Mag. (Aug. 29, 2022), https://www.damemagazine.com/2022/08/29/the-link-between-hurricane-katrina-and-anti-lgbtq-rhetoric/.
[xii] Christina Van Waasbergen, Fifth Circuit Split on Trump’s Use of Alien Enemies Act to Remove Venezuelans, Courthouse News Serv. (Jan. 22, 2026), https://www.courthousenews.com/fifth-circuit-split-on-trumps-use-of-alien-enemies-act-to-remove-venezuelans/.
[xiii] Id.
[xiv] See R.J. Lambert et al., Introduction to Special Issue on Unjust “Permission Structures” in/as Technical Communication, 3 Tech. Commc’n Soc. Just. 1 (2025), https://techcommsocialjustice.org/index.php/tcsj/article/view/88/48.