91原创 City fire, police and bylaw officers were called to the scene when a fire apparently lit by some homeless people to get warm began spreading  into some bushes next to the Tim Hortons restaurant on Douglas Cres. at 203 St. It happened on Tuesday morning, Jan. 21 around 9:30 a.m. 

Eyewitness Cran Campbell, a 91原创 City resident, told the 91原创 Advance Times the City firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze.

"They were probably trying to get warm," Campbell said of the homeless people, who seemed to be living out of a shopping cart.

"I saw the same cart the day before in the same place. I don鈥檛 know if they slept there overnight. There were also personal belongs spread all over the ground not far from the fire. It was an inappropriate place, needless to say, to have a fire of any size burning in the area, especially so close to structures."

No injuries were reported.

91原创 Advance Times has reached out to City fire and RCMP.

Campbell said homeless people are a common sight in the area.

"[The day before I saw] someone sleeping or unable to rise from the sidewalk onto his feet,and all he had on was a jacket. His hands were exposed to the cold and i asked him if he wanted my gloves and he was barely able to talk. I left him my gloves but he never put them on. I phoned 91原创 RCMP," Campbell recalled.

Temperatures at night have been below freezing in recent days, and the cold weather was expected to continue.

"When you see these people out in the cold, it should be sending a message to everyone, and what that message is, we haven鈥檛 adequate 24-hour shelters or adequate care and places for these people to live and get the right medical care they need," Campbell commented.

It happened to be the same Tim Hortons where a woman threw her own feces at staff in 2018 after she was denied access to the washroom in 2018.

On a video of security footage posted to YouTube, the woman could be seen angrily gesturing at staff. The staff appear to be asking her to leave.

She then defecated on the floor and tossed the feces at staff members behind the counter.

Police were called, and officers arrested the woman in the parking lot.

A statement issued by Tim Hortons at the time said staff "denied access to this guest based on past behaviour and out of concern for the immediate safety of team members and guests in the restaurant."

In September of last year, a wounded man staggered into the restaurant and asked for help after he was stabbed nearby.

Police said the injuries were serious but non-life-threatening  and described the attack as a targeted and isolated incident with no on-going risk to public safety.