The 2024 Fall Dumpathon is a wrap!
We hauled away 19 dumpsters full of fire fuel. Kensington residents say the neighborhood is safer from wildfire because of our efforts.
Here are the real heroes of the Dumpathon, our dumpster-minders!
Are you ready to start ridding your canyon and yard of potential fire fuel?
Read the city’s brush clearing guidelines here.
You can also check out San Diego Canyonlands video presentation and brush management resource guide here.
Please click here for a list of resources to help you with brush maintenance.
Funding for the Dumpathon is generously provided by a grant from SDG&E and the San Diego Fire Foundation. EDCO also donates dumpsters for this event.
DUMPATHON? WHAT’S THAT?
The Dumpathon is our semi-annual canyon cleanup. Kensington Fire Safe (KFS) rents dumpsters and places them around the hood for residents to dump their fire-prone canyon and yard brush trimmings for free. Dumpsters are left out for one week at various locations around Kensington and neighbors are encouraged to clear out their canyons and yards to create defensible space around their homes.
With grant money from SDG&E we are able to rent a few dumpsters, but with our community fundraising efforts we are able to provide even more dumpsters and hold two clearing events a year. It is vital to clear canyons not only to reduce fire danger but also to deter homeless encampments. Experience shows that when the brush is cleared the homeless move out.
Kensington residents who live on or near a canyon volunteer as Dumpster-minders. A dumpster is placed in front of their home for neighbors to fill. They post signs, and check on the dumpster now and then to remove any non-green waste that may have been mistakenly added. We sometimes need new dumpster-minders so let us know if you might be willing to do this great service for your neighborhood. If you’d like to volunteer please contact us at info@kensingtonfiresafe.org.
Remembering Dumpathons Past
RECAP OF THE FEBRUARY 2022 DUMPATHON: For the first time ever, KFS decided to hold a winter Dumpathon. This small, pilot program tested if it’s effective to hold two Dumpathons a year, one in the winter, and the main, larger one in the fall. The answer is a resounding YES.
We’ve had a very successful Dumpathon and estimate we’ve removed 17 tons of flammable green waste from Kensington!
In fact, we were so successful that two of our five dumpsters were completely full before the event even ended, so we had them hauled away early.
A total of four dumpsters were 100% full and one large dumpster was 90% full.
We are so grateful to YOU, our community, for doing your part to keep Kensington safe from wildfires. We’re also grateful for our dumpster-minders for hosting our five dumpsters. And we are especially grateful for our sponsors, The Fire Safe Council of San Diego County, and the San Diego River Conservancy.
Click here to read our blog post and see photos of the event.
RECAP OF THE 2021 OCTOBER DUMPATHON: During the first two weeks in October, Kensington Fire Safe placed 13 dumpsters around the neighborhood, 6 in Week 1, 7 in Week 2. Neighbors took advantage of these free dumpsters to dispose of their flammable, overgrown brush.
We estimate that Kensington residents cleared close to 39 tons of fire-prone brush from their canyons and yards and placed them in the dumpsters provided by Kensington Fire Safe.
Thank you so much to our 13 dumpster-minders, neighbors who let us place a dumpster in the street outside their house. They spread the word about the Dumpathon and got many of their neighbors involved. They also monitored the dumpster throughout the weeks and notified us of any problems. Our dumpster-minders were incredibly helpful and supportive.
We are also incredibly grateful to SDG&E, The San Diego Region Fire Foundation, and our neighborhood Dollar$ 4 Dumpsters donors for their generosity funding this successful fire-fuel reduction program.
We are also grateful for the amazing support we received from Ware Disposal, our dumpster rental company. They have been an invaluable partner through many Dumpathons and we look forward to working with them in the future.
For photos and more info about the Dumpathon held in October, 2021 please click here.