Vancouver police are asking the public to help identify a person of interest connected to a fire that damaged the rear of a hardware store near Mill Plain Boulevard and Garrison Road. Officers have not said when the fire broke out or how extensive the damage was, only that they are actively working to determine who is responsible.
The blaze struck the back of the retail center at 8000 E Mill Plain Blvd, a commercial hub anchored by Parkrose Hardware inside the Garrison Square complex, according to LoopNet. The 18.6-acre shopping center, built in 1962, serves as a primary neighborhood retail destination in East Vancouver. According to the Vancouver Police Department, officers are attempting to identify a person of interest in the arson case and are asking anyone with information to come forward.
The intersection where the store sits falls within the North Garrison Heights and Vancouver Heights neighborhood boundary, an area that mixes multi-family housing with commercial corridors along the Mill Plain arterial, per Realtor.com. Anyone with information has been directed to contact Officer Ilia Botvinnik, either by email at [email protected] or through the department’s other reporting channels, per the Vancouver Police Department’s post.
How Investigators Classify the Fire Under Washington Law
Suspicious property fires like this one are typically investigated jointly by the Vancouver Police Department and the Vancouver Fire Marshal’s Office, which examines origin points and burn patterns to evaluate whether a fire was intentionally set, Hoodline has previously reported. Fire marshals typically assess the physical evidence and pinpoint where a fire started before handing suspect identification over to police detectives. It remains unclear whether that cause-and-origin analysis has been completed in this case, or whether investigators have determined what sparked the fire behind the hardware store…