Grants Pass, Ore. – A man was arrested and charged with arson following a fire in a Grants Pass neighborhood.
According to the Grants Pass Department of Public Safety, numerous people reported a fire in the 1000 block of N.E. A Street around 5:00 p.m. on September 4.
Police said the fire was burning vegetation at the time of the reports, but it was also threatening nearby homes.
Firefighters and police responded to the scene within minutes and began evacuating a nearby residence where two elderly people lived.
An 89-year-old woman suffered a bruised hip during the evacuation and was transported to the hospital.
Crews were able to quickly control the fire. Nobody else was injured and no residences were damaged.
Officers said while firefighters were working to extinguish the fire, a citizen reported 56-year-old Dean Lee Ruff was “behaving suspiciously” moments before the fire started.
He was subsequently detained and lodged in the Josephine County Jail on an arson charge.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call police.
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