Arsonist targets Portland Fire Station on E. Burnside

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The search is on for a person who set fire outside a Portland fire station while the crew was out battling another fire, damaging the exterior wall.

Late Saturday morning a man was seen “rustling around between some shrubs” as the crew at Fire Station 19, 7301 E. Burnside, was leaving on an emergency call, PF&R officials said. When the crew came back they smelled smoke and found a fire burning outside the station’s windows.

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“We’re trained to smell smoke,” PFR Lt. Rick Graves told KOIN 6 News. “It was right here on the other side of these shrubs, you can see the damage to the vegetation due to the heat as well as the smoke staining on the brick. It was about three-to-four foot flames licking up higher than these shrubs.”

Investigators said the fire, started with “ordinary combustibles,” was set between the shrubs and the outside wall. Officials told KOIN 6 News the arsonist used yard signs and kept lighting them until the fire began to spread.

“We are very experienced at exterior fires hitting these, this brick, if you will, having nowhere to go,” Graves said. “It goes up, it gets into the attic and then we have an attic fire.”

But in this case, the damage was limited to soot staining the bricks of the fire station.

A surveillance camera captured the fire glow at the station, which PF&R posted to their X account.

Lt. Jason Andersen, the senior arson investigator with PF&R, said over the 21 years he’s been with the department issues like vandalism have gotten worse.

“What we’ve noticed over the last, you know, roughly about seven to eight years is we’ve noticed that fire stations have been vandalized,” Andersen said.

This particular incident at Station 19 hit harder, too, he said. “It definitely hits home, because this was my home, my home away from home, for quite awhile.”

No one has yet been arrested in this case, and any specific charges — including arson — will be decided by the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office. Right now, PF&R’s highest priority is finding out what they can.

At any point in time, he said, there are about 80-100 open arson cases being worked through.

“Anytime our firefighters are affected negatively by an act of a crime, just like the general public, we want to hold people accountable and do the best we can to do that,” Andersen said.

The investigation into this arson continues. Anyone with information is asked to contact Portland police.

This is the second incident in about two weeks of a Portland fire station being intentionally damaged. In the early morning hours of August 19, a white Ford F-150 drove onto the lawn of the fire station at 5211 SE Mall Street and hit the garage door and flagpole. The major damage needed emergency repairs.

That case remains under investigation, but KOIN 6 News confirmed one person has been arrested. Officials said these two cases are not related.

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