Trash bin fires in Marysville prompt warning

Published 10:24 pm Monday, May 17, 2010

MARYSVILLE — A string of trash bin fires early Monday has Marysville police looking for a fire bug.

Detectives believe fires started in five trash containers along a stretch of Columbia Avenue likely are connected, Marysville police Lt. Darin Rasmussen said.

The first call came just after 4 a.m., Marysville Fire District spokeswoman Kristen Thorstenson said. Firefighters found two trash bins on fire outside Totem Middle School, near Columbia Avenue. The fire caused light damage to the building from soot and smoke.

Nine minutes later, another call led crews to the 900 block of Columbia Avenue, where a third trash bin was smoldering, Thorstenson said. The next call came at 4:35: A fire in a garbage container outside the Strawberry Lanes Bowling Alley, in the 1000 block of Columbia Avenue. Just as firefighters wrapped up, they were summoned to a dumpster smoldering just north of the bowling alley.

Nobody was injured in the fires and the damage was minor, but police are taking them seriously, Rasmussen said.

“Any time you are dealing with fire, you always have a potential for injury and property damage,” he said. “We don’t want to see any new cases.”

Detectives are asking anyone with information to contact police and help find whomever is responsible.

Meanwhile, people should remember to keep garbage cans and anything else that can burn at least five feet away from buildings, Thorstenson said.