A task force in Kensington is charged with extinguishing fires that keep the homeless warm. Residents are welcoming the new effort.

Robert Highhouse was crouched in McPherson Square Park one frigid night last weekend, huddled around a small fire he made to keep warm, when a team of city workers approached him and poured water on the flames.

He was annoyed, he said, but understands why they had to do it — he has seen a rubbish fire from the sidewalk ignite a wooden fence after a drug user passed out next to it. Still, as a homeless man in Kensington, he said, he was just trying to survive the freezing night.

Meanwhile, Darlene Abner-Burton said she walks through Kensington with one less thing to fear. It used to be a tragically common sight in the winter, she said — groups of unhoused people, most in the throes of a heroin addiction, huddled around burning cardboard, books, trash, even an old mattress, the flames emitting smoke that made it hard to breathe and could quickly turn dangerous.

This season, she said, she has seen very few fires, and she credits the city’s latest action plan.

“At first, I was skeptical,” she said, “but they’re actually doing it.”

Such are the pains and praise of the city’s new Nuisance Fire Task Force, a group of police, fire, sanitation, and contracted outreach workers who, since late November, have begun patrolling Kensington from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. to extinguish fires, most of which are started by homeless people trying to keep warm, but that officials say can quickly burn out of control.

Since the program started on Nov. 18, the task force has put out 200 fires, according to a spokesperson for the fire department.

Neighborhood residents say they have seen a marked change, and it’s welcome. Residents have complained for years about the issue, and how the fires, often burning plastic, furniture, and fabric, release noxious fumes and smoke that gets into their homes and clothes, and irritates their eyes, throat, and lungs. The fires can easily spread if not contained, and have resulted in an untold number of structure fires in recent years.

“The embers can catch anything,” Abner-Burton said.

Those who rely on the fires for warmth, though, said they are just trying to survive the cruel cold in an already punishing place. For many in addiction, the fear of a painful withdrawal, which can set in within just a few hours after using drugs, is enough to keep them from seeking overnight shelter. Many shelters do not allow people to come and go during the night, and don’t allow them to bring certain belongings inside, like grocery carts or knives, which some say are important for self-defense for people living on the streets. Many would rather brave the cold, or hunker down inside a transit station during the night, four people said in interviews.

But as the city enters its first prolonged cold spell of the year, with officials announcing a Code Blue ahead of weeks of whipping winds and temperatures expected to be in the 20s and teens, some said it feels like a life-or-death situation.

“It’s dead week,” said Highhouse, 31, who is originally from Scranton but has lived in Kensington for four years.

During a Code Blue event, the city expands outreach to homeless people and maximizes shelter space. Officials this week opened 20 new warming centers, including two near Kensington — an overnight center at Inn of Amazing Mercy on Huntingdon Avenue, and a daytime space at the Juniata Older Adult Center. The city said more than 1,005 people had accessed warming centers within the first two days of opening. And Philly House at 13th and Vine Streets, the city’s largest and longest-running shelter, said it had beds available this week.

Law enforcement officers have always responded to residents’ 911 calls or put out rubbish fires when they saw them. Now, the model is more proactive, and less reliant on neighbors to call for help.

“We really want to balance public safety and the fact that these fires can lead to really traumatic events,” said Adam Geer, the city’s chief public safety director.

Homeless people have noticed the change, too. Highhouse, wrapped in a white sheet and oversize black jacket on a recent Tuesday, said he’ll still build fires, but now out of sight.

“Even a little fire, they put it out,” he said. “They’re on it.”

Taryan Koennecke, 42, who has been homeless and addicted to opioids in Kensington for 11 years, was sitting around a fire on the sidewalk on Kensington Avenue this week when, she said, the workers sprayed water on the flames — and on her in the process. An outreach worker with the group asked if she wanted to go to a homeless shelter, and she agreed, she said, but they never returned.

She spent the rest of the night outside waiting on the corner of Somerset Street, she said, shivering in her drenched clothes.

Geer encouraged anyone who has a negative experience with the task force, like Koennecke, to file a report with his office or with the Citizens Police Oversight Commission.

“We’ll make sure that is dealt with swiftly,” he said.

Roxy Rivera, who runs the civic association Somerset Neighbors for Better Living, said that she still sees fires now and then, but that officials respond more quickly. It’s a relief, she said, because the smoke and irritants get into her house and irritate her eyes and throat. She has air purifiers, but they aren’t enough.

“You can’t open windows or doors because more comes in,” she said.

She feels for the homeless, she said, but believes they should go to a shelter or warming center instead.

“It’s inhumane to the residents to have to put up with this,” she said. “We are trying to find a middle ground, but where do we come in as residents? We are also humans and we live here.”

Roz Pichardo, a Kensington resident who runs the Sunshine House, a resource hub at 2774 Kensington Ave. for people facing homelessness and addiction, felt torn about the issue. Just on Monday, she said, she saw a sidewalk fire crawl up the wall of a check-cashing store across the street. She and others ran over to put it out.

She said that if officials put the fires out, they need to have a team of people without ties to law enforcement to offer folks resources.

Geer said that the police department sends a team that specializes in outreach, and that they are accompanied by social workers from Merakey who have long worked in Kensington.

Still, Pichardo said, people on the street are often too distrustful of police to accept help from officers or those working with them.

“Bring workers they know and recognize,” she said. “They’re not gonna get in a car with someone with a uniform on.”