Where there's smoke

I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for the Portland fire department. I have needed them only once, nearly 18 years ago, but when I did, they came through for me.

That said, here's an absolutely outrageous story about one of their current personnel. He's running a pot shop on the side, and police say that when he identifies a person he believes stole some of his weed, he and some other dudes drive downtown, kidnap the guy, pistol-whip him, drive him to Estacada, and throw him in a storage container. Allegedly.

Other than that, he's a nice guy. Douglas Lee Bourland, 46 years old, according to this blow-by-blow account by Maxine of the O.

This being Portland, the vehicle in which the abduction allegedly took place had no license plates, of course.

I wonder what the fire commissioner, Jo Ann Hardesty, thinks of it all. Meanwhile, make up your own joke about blazing.