A man was arrested on Tuesday and accused of starting a fire that damaged several cars and the home of a city councilor in Portland, Ore., the police said.
Officials said the man, Vashon M. Locust, of Portland, entered a shed near the home of the councilor, Candace Avalos, on Oct. 26 to use an electrical outlet for a heater. When the outlet inside the shed didn’t work, Mr. Locust lit a small fire that ultimately spread, the Portland Police Bureau said in a news release.
Investigators interviewed Mr. Locust, and he was booked on Tuesday into the Multnomah County Detention Center on charges of reckless burning and second-degree criminal mischief, the police said. Both charges are misdemeanors.
It was not immediately clear if Mr. Locust had a lawyer.
The blaze, which emergency crews responded to around 2:40 a.m., engulfed Ms. Avalos’s car, carport and home, but she was able to get out safely with her cat, Valentino.
The authorities said last week that they considered the fire “suspicious in nature” and were investigating it as a possible arson. At the time, the authorities said that they had not found evidence that an accelerant or an incendiary device had been used to start the fire.
In a joint statement on Tuesday, the Portland Police Bureau chief, Bob Day, and the Portland Fire and Rescue chief, Lauren Johnson, said the fire was “not a targeted act of violence.”
Ms. Avalos, who was elected last November and took office in January, said that learning the cause of the fire had provided an opportunity to evaluate “the conditions that make tragedies like this possible in the first place.”
“This was an act that caused real harm and disruption to my life and others, and it’s important that we find a path forward that centers both healing and responsibility,” Ms. Avalos said. “But it’s also a reminder that far too many of our neighbors are living in crisis — people navigating untreated mental illness, addiction and poverty in a system that’s failed to catch them before they fall.”
Ms. Avalos added that she would like to connect with Mr. Locust “when the time is right,” but did not yet want to speak “about him as an individual.”
Hannah Ziegler is a general assignment reporter for The Times, covering topics such as crime, business, weather, pop culture and online trends.
The post Police Charge Man in Fire at Home of Portland City Councilor appeared first on New York Times.
