I was watching Northwest cable news and heard that a State patrol tower in clark county was set on fire by some arson. The report also said that the state patrol shifted to another freq. Question, so there is video i saw of it, looked pretty bad, can the WSP just set up a portable radio unit and change the freq? Whats the protocal for incidents like this? They said that the WSP was talking to no one for a few hours until someone checked the tower, that just seems like a HUGE secruity breach. Any ideas to what happenes when towers go down, like during earthquakes and all?
article copied from kgw.com (need password (free) to get content, pic on the website)
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By TERESA BELL, kgw.com Staff
VANCOUVER, Wash. -- A Washington State alarm foundation is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in a series of four arson fires at communication towers in Vancouver and Clark County.
“Fire and arson investigators are working closely together to solve these arson crimes,” said Heidi Scarpelli, Lead Deputy Fire Marshal for the Vancouver Fire Department.
KGW
Investigators think an arsonist sparked the fire at the communication tower.
The most recent fire occurred just after midnight Friday, at the shared communication tower of the Washington state patrol and the Transportation headquarters in Vancouver at 11018 NE 51st Circle, according to Jim Flaherty of the Vancouver Fire Department. He said the tower was destroyed and damage is estimates at more than $100,000.
Flaherty said 9-1-1 connections were not disrupted because authorities were able to quickly switch to a Kelso tower.
Investigators from the Vancouver Fire Marshal's office found the cables and wires at the base of the tower were burned. Flaherty said the fire was out by early Friday morning. No one was injured.
The other three suspected arsons also occurred early in the morning. Investigators believe a fire was intentionally set at a communications tower at 13412 NE 20th Ave. on August 1st, and again at the same location on Aug. 2nd. Another fire was also set on August, 2nd, at 11508 NE Fourth Plain Road.
(AP also contributed to this article.)
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