Arson isn’t new to Eugene, but officials from the Eugene Fire Department and the Eugene Police Department don’t know what’s causing the recent string of suspicious fires being lit in the area.
Officials have yet to apprehend suspects in several of the fires, from the multiple Dumpster fires to the more high-profile incidents of arson, including two at Romania Chevrolet and one that damaged the house of University men’s basketball head coach Ernie Kent.
“Arson is a fairly common crime,” EPD Detective Bob Holland said. “We see [arson] several times a week.”
Holland said large fires, such as the fire that destroyed 34 vehicles at Eugene’s Joe Romania Chevrolet on March 30, draw more attention to arson because of the high-profile nature of the crime.
High-profile fires are usually set by a specific group trying to send a message to the victims of the fire, said EPD Sgt. Rex Barrong, supervisor of the EPD Arson Investigation Team.
Barrong is also a member of the Joint Arson Task Force, a task force that combines the EPD, the FBI, the Oregon State Department of Justice and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
Barrong said the task force began its work last month after a pattern of fires developed in Eugene, including a fire set at the EPD’s West University Public Safety Station on 13th Avenue.
“Eugene has become a ‘centerpoint’ for a lot of fires,” Barrong said.
Last summer, the fire department responded to more than 100 fires lit in Dumpsters and cars in the Blair and Whiteaker neighborhoods, Deputy Fire Marshall Greg Musil said.
Questions about why these fires were occurring and why there has been an increase in the number of high-profile fires prompted the task force’s formation, Barrong said.
The resources provided by the task force have enabled the EPD to offer a $20,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the person or persons involved in the Romania and EPD University station fires, and they have also given the EPD more resources to investigating these crimes, Barrong said.
Apprehending arson suspects can be difficult, Barrong said. Finding who’s responsible, even when a group comes forward, is almost impossible — evidence at a fire may show what was used to start the fire, but not who used it unless they were caught in the act, he said.
“When all we have is a group claiming responsibility, we have no one person to convict for the crime,” Barrong said. “There’s a certain notoriety that goes along with arson; people can’t always get caught, and this is very appealing to arsonists.”
Romania Chevrolet was allegedly targeted last June by Jeffrey Luers and Craig Marshall. In a communiquŽ distributed by Portland-based Earth Liberation Front spokesman Craig Rosebraugh, an anonymous group claimed responsibility for the recent Romania arson and said they set the fire out of respect for Luers, Marshall and the environment.
“There’s always a copycat in every crime,” Barrong said. “It happens in homicide and arson alike.”
But arson is not usually a copycat crime, said Deputy Fire Marshall Mark Thompson.
“Arson fires are usually isolated incidents,” Thompson said. “Sometimes they come in waves but are more or less coincidental.”
Dumpster fires remain the most common form of arson in Eugene, Barrong said, and large high-profile fires are far less frequent.
“If other arsonists are inspired by each other, it’s most likely because they belong to the same group or the same cause,” Barrong said.