Suspects Found in Oregon Ranger Station Arson
By Matt Rasmussen
Four years after an arson fire reduced the Oakridge Ranger Station to cinders on Oregon’s Willamette National Forest, federal investigators have identified suspects in the case.
The blaze, which broke out in the early morning hours of October 30, 1996, represented the worst assault against a federal building since the Oklahoma City bombing the year before and galvanized fears of violence against federal land managers in the West.
In another development, the fire chief of the town of Oakridge, who was among the first on the scene after the blaze erupted, said in an interview that the fire began in the interior of the building and that he saw no signs of breaking and entering when he arrived at the site.
Forest Magazine conducted numerous interviews with federal investigators and Willamette National Forest employees in an effort to determine the status of the investigation.
Earlier this month, Bruce Gainer, a special agent with the Forest Service’s law enforcement division, and other agency officers, met privately with Willamette National Forest employees and told them that authorities have identified suspects. They did not reveal who those suspects are.
To date, no arrests have been made. That’s in large part because several people have claimed responsibility for the arson attack, Gainer said during the meeting. Authorities want to eliminate false claims before they seek indictments.
"The way it was presented to us is that the problem wasn’t that they don’t have enough evidence to identify the suspect, but that others have bragged that they did it," said one Willamette National Forest employee who was at the meeting but asked not to be identified. "They want to show that some of these bragging claims are not valid before they proceed."
That employee also said that during the meeting, Gainer said investigators had taken evidence before a federal judge.
Gainer was unavailable for comment. Patti Rodgers, a spokeswoman for the Willamette National Forest, denied that Gainer talked about evidence being presented to a federal judge during the meeting. She did, however, confirm that the meeting took place and that authorities have told Willamette employees that they have suspects.
"I can confirm that (Gainer) did talk to employees," Rodgers said. "He did indicate that they have more suspects than they would like, that there are a number of people who have raised their hands (to take responsibility for the fire) and part of the job of the FBI is to go through and weed those out."
The FBI is leading the investigation into the Oakridge blaze and the Forest Service’s law enforcement division is assisting. John Ferreira, the FBI agent who is leading the investigation, would neither confirm nor deny that investigators have suspects, although he said he has met with Willamette National Forest officials from time to time to update them on the case.
Rumors among employees and residents of Oakridge, a small town in the Cascade Mountain foothills, have swirled in the four years since the arson fire.
Two Willamette National Forest employees interviewed recently who also asked not to be identified said they understood that a resident of the Oakridge area was being considered a suspect by authorities. That could not be confirmed, and by all accounts Gainer did not make mention of the identities of the suspects in his talk with employees.
Four years ago, in the days following the blaze, investigators openly speculated that the arson was the work of "eco-terrorists." Jack Ward Thomas, then chief of the Forest Service, visited the burned-out building and called it an act of cowardly terrorism.
"This is what people do who do not understand how to operate in a democracy," Thomas said then.
Two days prior to the blaze, vandals set fire to a Forest Service truck seventy miles to the north, at the Detroit Ranger Station on the Willamette National Forest. They also spray-painted graffiti, including "Forest Rapers," and "Earth Liberation Front" on the side of the building. Earth Liberation Front is a radical environmental group based in England.
Unlike the Detroit attack, there was no public claim of responsibility at the Oakridge fire. The only suspicious items that were known to be found at the site were several nails strewn about the ranger station’s driveway.
In a recent interview, Oakridge Fire Chief James Archer, who was among the first on the scene the night of the blaze, said that the fire began in the interior of the building. He said he saw no evidence of breaking and entering.
"When I got there, the fire was not on the outside of the building," Archer said. "I knew right away it was arson. The fire was burning so evenly." Archer said that non-arson blazes tend to burn through buildings in a more erratic manner.
As soon as federal authorities arrived on the scene that morning, Archer said, they took control of the investigation. Archer said they quickly found the source of the blaze.
"They brought a dog in and it was determined that there was an incendiary device on the inside of the building," Archer said. "Some type of petroleum device."
In the days following the blaze, many Oregon conservationists accused authorities of being too quick to assume the blaze was the work of radical environmentalists. The Oregon Natural Resources Council offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person responsible–a reward that still stands.
"There was that perception out there, without a doubt, and in my opinion people were too quick to leap to that conclusion," said ONRC’s Doug Heiken. "We’re certainly not convinced that it was an environmentalist that did this."
The Forest Service opened its new ranger station at the site in October. It includes space for about 130 employees who have been consolidated from the Oakridge, Ridgon and Lowell ranger districts.
-- Matt Rasmussen is editor of Forest Magazine.
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