Two U-Haul trucks burned before dawn Thursday in a Southwest Portland parking lot where a ballot drop box is located. The box was not damaged, no injuries were reported, and investigators have not determined the fire’s motive. OregonLive reported that police arson investigators and Portland firefighters responded to the lot near Southwest Barbur Boulevard and Terwilliger Boulevard.
The trucks were parked in the A-Boy and U.S. Bank lot. OregonLive reported that heat from the blaze caused their tires to explode. The outlet also reported that investigators do not believe the fire was connected to the ballot box; they have not ruled out accidental ignition during an attempted gasoline siphoning.
A witness told OregonLive he saw two men carrying what appeared to be gasoline, heard explosions and later saw a blue car leave the area. That account has not established who set the fire or whether it was deliberate. No suspect description or arrest was reported.
A separate fire from the 2024 ballot-box attacks
The nearby ballot box recalls a different set of incidents, but does not establish a connection. On Oct. 28, 2024, ballot boxes were set on fire in Portland and Vancouver, Washington. The Vancouver fire damaged hundreds of ballots; the Portland fire was extinguished quickly and damaged three, OPB reported. The FBI says improvised incendiary devices were placed on those boxes between 2 and 4 a.m. It also lists an earlier Vancouver incident on Oct. 8, 2024, when an unknown person placed an incendiary device on a box between 3:30 and 4 a.m. The FBI’s account describes those earlier incidents; it offers no evidence linking them to Thursday’s truck fire.
Investigators later clarified that the device in the Southeast Portland ballot-box attack had been attached to the side of the box, rather than placed inside it as initially reported, according to the Portland Police Bureau. That detail concerns the 2024 attack, not the current fire.
Documented safeguards vary by county
Some election protections documented after the 2024 incidents address fire, while others monitor activity around ballot boxes. Multnomah County ballot boxes had fire-suppression canisters. Clark County, Washington, was installing cameras at its 22 ballot boxes ahead of the 2026 election; KGW reported that the county’s boxes also have fire-suppression equipment and sensors that monitor activity and temperature. These are measures in those counties, not evidence about the cause of the Portland truck fire.
The Oregon Secretary of State provides a Vote by Mail Procedures Manual.
The Portland investigation remains open. The available reporting establishes that the trucks burned and the nearby ballot box was undamaged; it does not establish a motive or a connection to the ballot-box attacks of 2024.
