Portland family living in fear as homeless squatters next door set house on fire twice in a day
PORTLAND, OREGON: A frightened Oregon family had to save their home from a fire using their own fire extinguishers after homeless squatters set their house on fire twice in one day. Jacob and Beth Adams said they were sympathetic to people experiencing homelessness, but now they have had enough. The couple claims their lives are on the line.
Jacob said he acted immediately when the raging fire threatened to jump from both sides onto their Portland property. This is just one of several horrific incidents the couple has faced since squatters took over the neighboring building five years ago.
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What did Jacob Adams say?
“There are fires that have been happening off and on. Major ones. This recent one actually came and set our property on fire,” Adams told Fox 12. “Within 12 hours of that fire, another fire popped up. My wife was screaming, and propane tanks were igniting off from the fire.” The petrified resident said that he was forced to buy fire extinguishers. He recalled multiple thefts off his property, even including an account of an incident where he caught one culprit red-handed who he claims stole some of his wood.
Adams said it's a never-ending situation and things like drug use, fights and the like are all too common right next door in a home riddled with graffiti, eviction notices, broken windows, missing walls and a big hole in the roof. He added, "I don’t know how many times I’ve talked to police, because people are screaming, or someone is overdosing. It’s just countless, countless first responders’ calls. We all have to love our neighbor no matter who they are. But at the point when they start setting your place on fire it becomes a little more difficult.”
Adams said he leads with love, and understands people need a place to sleep, “but when the owner doesn’t enforce the trespassing laws, and when we call him everything’s on deaf ears. And the police’s hands are tied because they can’t vacate people because we call, but what does that do?”
Another neighbor speaks
Armand Martens, an 83-year-old veteran and a neighbor of the same place told the outlet that the squatters have destroyed the neighborhood to the point where he fears for his safety. “I felt safer when I was walking around in downtown Saigon when I was in Vietnam than I do here in Portland,” he said. Martens said he’s had to take matters into his own hands as his illegal neighbors have repeatedly hooked up a hose to his water. “It seems like all of the stuff they’re doing is enabling the homeless people,” Martens added.
Both men are now extremely panic-stricken by the fact that they may have no choice but to leave the city they know and love.
