Medford, Ore — A string of fires Wednesday, a Greenway fire Thursday and another pair of early morning fires have Medford fire crews with their hands full.
It seems as soon as one fire is out, another begins and fire crews are on high alert trying to fight these blazes.
In the midst of a drought, Medford Fire has all hands on deck.
“It’s just so dry, we have plenty to burn,” said Samantha Matheny.
Medford police say a possible serial arsonist may have started five fires Wednesday.
A day later, fire crews were back in action, fighting a five acre fire on the Bear Creek Greenway, which Medford fire inspector Samantha Matheny says was likely unintentional, the result of a transient camp in the area.
“You never know what one’s motivation is, it’s possible that they were cooking something for lunch and it got away from them,” said Matheny.
Just hours later, crews were back at it early this morning fighting two more fires on Jackson Street and behind the Medford Center Safeway.
Unlike Wednesday’s fires, these appear to be unintentional, but they still aren’t ruling anything out.
“This many fires in such close proximity, you do start to wonder, if it’s just one person, if it’s a coincidence, it’s hard to believe that it’s a coincidence,” said Matheny.
With bone dry conditions, Medford fire’s looking for all the help they can get.
“Sun’s going to come back out, and it’s going to be up in the hundreds again it’s going to dry everything up and we will still be in high fire danger,” said Matheny.
Medford fire asks that if you see anything suspicious, especially before and after a fire starts, please call either Medford police or Medford fire.
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