Woman Arrested For Fires On The Bluff

Portland, Or. – A 38 year old woman has been charged with reckless burning in  connection with almost a half dozen brush fires Wednesday on the bluff near the University of Portland in North Portland. The Portland Fire Bureau says one blaze came within a few feet of some vehicles in a university parking lot and a building was just 50 feet away.

The Bureau says witnesses claim Adrienne Clark used a butane lighter. Lt Rich Chatman says low winds and high humidity kept the flames from spreading. In 2001, a fire on the bluff threatened 100 homes and is considered one of the biggest wildfires in Portland history. Chapman says “it’s dry and its brown and um, that stuff doesn’t take much to become a real problem and we’ve seen how that bluff  can be a real problem not that long ago when we had a five alarm fire on that same bluff.”