The Eugene-Springfield Fire Department responded to the area of 7th Ave. and Commercial Street in Eugene Wednesday afternoon to extinguish a brush fire that ignited near the Fern Ridge Bike Path along Amazon Creek.
Crews were dispatched to the scene just before 4:30 p.m.
“We had a report that we had someone intentionally set a fire off of the bike path,” Battalion Chief Chris Paskett said. “When we arrived, we did find a rapidly moving fire in this grass. It took us about 10 to 15 minutes to confine the fire and another 15 to 20 minutes to extinguish it.”
This incident is not the first time this summer that the Fire Department has responded to a grass fire near the bike path.
On Aug. 10, ESF crews responded to a small brush fire in the same area along the bike path near 7th Ave. and Commercial Street.
Down the street from the bike path, ESF fire crews responded to a “suspicious” vegetation fire on July 30 at a local milling facility near West 1st Ave. and South Bertelsen Road. At the time, firefighters arrived to find the fire confined to two log piles at the facility and were able to contain the blaze before it damaged the logs.