As the risk for wildfires grows in Southern California, an initiative to keep San Diego clean has expanded to include some of the city's most fire-prone areas.
The Clean SD initiative, which typically focuses on cleaning San Diego's beaches and rivers, has expanded to include canyon clean-up.
"There are about 45,000 structures along canyon edges in our city,” San Diego Fire-Rescue Chief Colin Stowell said. "This cleanup effort goes a long way to help mitigate fire risks and keep our residents and firefighters safe."
In the first week alone, Clean SD has removed five tons of trash and debris from canyons, according to the group.
More than 370 tons of trash have been removed from the city's rivers, streets and sidewalks.
Mayor Kevin Faulconer was in City Heights Thursday to urge residents to report problem spots through the Get It Done app.
"We are sending groups out in some cases that haven’t been cleaned in over a decade," Faulconer said. "This is the right thing to do to clean up our canyons, to protect our environment and also to send a very strong message to public safety as we get close to fire season."
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San Diego police will hand out citations up to $1,000 to those found dumping trash and debris illegally.
The city says they are also working on installing surveillance cameras where illegal dumping is common.
Editor's note: A previous version of this story misspelled Chief Colin Stowell's name. It has since been corrected and NBC 7 regrets the error.
