As revelers gathered Saturday evening for a wedding party at Camron-Stanford House beside Lake Merritt, a fire started in an adjacent homeless camp. Clouds of acrid smoke drifted across the wedding venue. The camp, a handful of tents, is across the street from the 1930s-era Alameda County Courthouse, but it hasn’t been cleared out.
Fires like this occur frequently, but aren’t reported often in the news unless they cause serious disruption.