photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

A fire burns at the unsanctioned homeless camp behind the Amtrak station near Seventh and New Jersey streets on Monday night, April 24, 2023, in Lawrence.

This story was updated at 6:22 p.m. Tuesday, April 25, 2023.

After a large fire destroyed several tents on Monday night at an unsanctioned homeless camp behind the Amtrak station in East Lawrence, investigators are working to determine what caused it.

Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical crews responded just after 8 p.m. Monday to the area behind the Amtrak station near the intersection of Seventh and New Jersey Streets after a passerby saw multiple tents on fire in the woods and called 911.

No injuries were reported, and Fire Chief Rich Llewellyn told the Journal-World in an email that crews were able to “knock down” the fire within 15 minutes. On Tuesday, LDCFM data analyst McKenzi Ezell said that five tents were destroyed in the fire, and that all of them were thought to belong to one person.

“One was used as living quarters. The remaining four were used as storage,” Ezell said.

Lawrence Police Department spokesperson Laura McCabe said police investigators were also called to the scene because it was suspected that the fire was set intentionally. Police interviewed witnesses at the scene before turning the investigation over to LDCFM’s Fire Investigation Unit.

Ezell said Tuesday that the investigation was still underway and that she could not comment further.

At the scene on Monday, large flames could be seen burning along the southern banks of the river, and loud popping noises could be heard coming from the camp. Some neighborhood residents who live near the camp were heard saying they wished the city had done more to prevent people from camping there and they hoped the fire would drive people away from the area.

So far in 2023, LDCFM has responded to more than 10 incidents “near the Amtrak Station, in the 600 block of New York, and in the 700 Block of New Jersey,” Ezell said. She said half of those were fire-related and the other half were medical calls. In 2022, she said, the department responded to nearly 30 incidents in the area; 30% of those were fire-related and the rest were medical.

As the Journal-World has reported, the area behind the Amtrak station is a protected wildlife area for bald eagles, but city and state officials recently said that they had no plans to remove the unsanctioned campsite from the area.

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

A fire burns at the unsanctioned homeless camp behind the Amtrak station near Seventh and New Jersey streets on Monday night, April 24, 2023, in Lawrence.

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

A fire truck is seen near the site of a fire at the unsanctioned homeless camp behind the Amtrak station near Seventh and New Jersey streets on Monday night, April 24, 2023, in Lawrence.

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Fire crews responded to a fire at the unsanctioned homeless camp behind the Amtrak station near Seventh and New Jersey streets on Monday night, April 24, 2023, in Lawrence.

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Fire crews responded to a fire at the unsanctioned homeless camp behind the Amtrak station near Seventh and New Jersey streets on Monday night, April 24, 2023, in Lawrence.