VIDEO/PHOTOS: 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.
“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.”