METH MAKING LINKED TO FIRE

JUNCTION CITY - A weekend fire that did $140,000 in damage to an apartment
complex began while residents in one of the apartments collected a chemical
that police said can be used to make methamphetamine.

Investigators believe that the residents of Apt. 76 at 590 Hatton Lane were
extracting red phosphorus from the strike strips on matchbook covers,
police Cpl. Larry Larson said Monday. There were 30,000 to 40,000
matchbooks in the apartment, Larson said.

The fire broke out Sunday afternoon and burned two upper-floor apartments
in a fourplex. The two lower apartments sustained smoke and water damage
and an attached fourplex was threatened, but firefighters contained the
flames, Junction City Fire Chief Carl Perry said.

No one was hurt.

Larson said the residents in the apartment where the fire started were
using rubbing alcohol to soak the phosphorus off the matchbooks, then
collecting the phosphorus after the alcohol evaporated. He said some people
speed up the process by heating the alcohol.

He said they apparently were going to sell the phosphorus.

Three of the apartment's four residents fled after the fire, Larson said,
but police interviewed the one who stayed and contacted and interviewed one
of the other three.

The other two residents are believed to be in the Albany area, he said, and
police are trying to find and interview them as well.

The names of the residents were not released Monday. Larson said the case
will be referred to the Lane County District Attorney's Office, and no
arrests would be made until after that office has reviewed the case.