Alex Paul
Three Sweet Home teenagers have been charged with arson II and burglary II in connection with a fire at the former Willamette Industries plywood plant March 29. The building is owned by Western States Land Reliance Trust of Eugene in connection with a proposed resort development headed by Dan Dessler.
Charged were Brian James Gilbert, 18, 1190 27th; Todd Andrew Tackitt, 19, 1190 27th; and Heidi Elisabeth Scofield, 17, 26740 Rowell Hill Road.
Gilbert and Tackitt were transported to the Linn County Jail and Scofield was taken to the Linn-Benton Juvenile Detention Facility.
According proceeds generated from the lease of the mill property are distributed to eight local charities.
The building was not insured, nor was a sprinkler system active.
Fire Chief Mike Beaver was first on the scene, after employees at Triple T studs, called in the report at 2:34 p.m.
A Sweet Home police officer was also on scene immediately after the report.
Chief Beaver’s grandfather, Henry Beaver, transferred from the Willamette sawmill to the new plywood plant when it opened in 1959.
“When I arrived on scene, the gate was locked and I had to cut the padlock,” Chief Beaver said. “When I got close to the building, I could see gray and yellow smoke coming out of the middle of the longest building, which was the old lay-up line.”
Within two minutes, Chief Beaver said, the fire was raging to the south and was consuming the structure.
“It was moving rapidly in both directions,” Chief Beaver said. “The building was of bowstring construction and it fails very quickly. Within 10 minutes, the building was collapsing.
Chief Beaver, who had already escalated the fire severity to three alarms, said firefighters with air packs quickly realized it was futile to try to move toward the inferno.
“They took them off, it was a tinder box,” Chief Beaver said.
Containment became the key as firefighters dumped huge quantities of water on the blaze.
Sweet Home had three engines, a water tender, two brush vehicles, an ambulance and a support vehicle on scene.
Lebanon sent an engine and an aerial apparatus that allowed attack from high in the air. Brownsville sent an engine.
The Oregon Department of Forestry provided two 1,000 gallon tenders and a brush rig and Cascade Timber Consulting provided its fire truck.
“By ODF and CTC responding, it took that aspect of the fire off our shoulders. They know what they’re doing and they handled the brush fires that spotted nearby,” Chief Beaver said.
Once the building collapsed, Chief Beaver said it was easier to contain because it cools off more quickly.
“This was a large open structure and the fire was fanned by winds that picked up,” Chief Beaver said. “I have no idea how many gallons of water we dumped on it. Lebanon put out a lot of fire for us. We hit it with the deluge guns the whole time.”
Chief Beaver said his younger firefighters learned a lesson on this incident.
“You can only train and tell guys so much. When this fire took off, you could hear it rumble. It ran north and south and it consumed the building. It was a great lesson for our guys.”
Chief Beaver said that although the incident is serious, the good news is that the facility is not a functioning mill, there were no job losses and no one was injured.
“That the upside to something like this,” he said. “It was very intense.”
Police Chief Bob Burford said the three suspects were arrested in 24 hours because “we threw a lot of resources at this.”
“There was a survey crew working near the area and they gave us a very good description of individuals seen leaving the area,” Chief Burford said. “Based on those descriptions, our first responding officers remembered seeing the suspects and two others.”
Chief Buford said the trio had no good reason for setting the fire.
“They had nothing to do and it started out by them throwing things around inside the building,” Chief Burford said. “They climbed on the roof and then they decided to start a fire.”
The fire reportedly started in a box with newspapers under what had been the plant’s second story office. “They also lit slivers of wood that were sticking out of the walls but they only smoldered,” Chief Burford said.
“In addition to the newspapers, they added scrap wood to create a good-sized fire,” Chief Burford said. “They kept added more and more wood and at one point, dragged a propane tank near the fire.”
Chief Burford said that at some point, the two men told Scofield to go outside.
Shortly after that, the three left the building and within 15 minutes, the building was fully engulfed.
On Tuesday, officials from the Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District, Sweet Home Police Department, ATF, State Police and State Fire Marshal’s office scoured the site for physical evidence.