A burning, gasoline-filled Heineken bottle was thrown against the WMPG/Free Press building at 92 Bedford Street on Saturday, Aug. 16 at around 1 a.m. The bottle appeared to be aimed at a window in the studio where the on-air DJ works, but it impacted below the window and exploded, leaving a scorch mark that is still visible. USM Police are investigating the incident, but no one at the station saw anyone throw the bottle and no leads are forthcoming. The incident raises concerns for safety and privacy.
In the days following the attack, WMPG tightened security by locking both of the doors that lead into the building. Before that, staffers usually only locked the interior door. Station Manager Jim Rand posted an alert at the station and on the WMPG listserv notifying staff of the event. He urged them to stay vigilant and to note the location of fire extinguishers and take other precautions. He said the USM Police have been providing the station with extra supervision.
“USM is also looking into the idea of security cameras on campus,” Rand said. He firmly believes that cameras should be installed on campus, waving aside privacy concerns. “This is a public university,” he said. “What are you trying to hide?”
Others at WMPG seem to agree with him. “At a staff meeting we took a vote on the camera issue,” Rand said. The staff voted unanimously for installing security cameras throughout the inside of the station.
Rand said that the mood at the station hasn’t changed significantly since the attack. The random and isolated nature of the event seems to have left people more bewildered than terrified, he said. “People are just shocked.”
Scott Spear, a DJ at WMPG, was running his radio show from the studio at the time of the incident. He said he had just finished taking a phone call from a listener when he saw fire suddenly billowing into the room through a window fan. “Presumably [the fan] sucked it into the building,” Spear said. “If I’d had someone sitting there, they would have been burned.”
Phil Hersey, the Technical Director at WMPG, was working in another part of the station at the time. “All of a sudden, Scott comes down the hall and says ‘There’s a huge fireball coming from the garage!” Thinking the garage beneath the studio had somehow caught fire, the two men ran outside and saw the remains of a broken bottle and a piece of cloth, which was still burning.
“It looked like a piece of paper on the ground burning,” Hersey said, “and the garage had a spot on it that looked like a small fire going out.” The men called USM police, who dispatched an officer and a fire truck to the building. Then they called Rand.
The USM Police log for that night reads “Fire extinguished – odor of gasoline in the area – burn marks on garage door.” The entry is marked 1:17 a.m. USM Police Detective Sergeant Ronald Saindon said USM Police collected the remains of the bottle, which is being analyzed for fingerprints by the Portland Police’s crime lab. The USM Police have no such facility.
Meanwhile, life goes on more or less as usual at WMPG. No one knows exactly what reason anyone could have for attacking the station. “There could be a million motives,” Rand said. “200 people do work here.”
“It doesn’t feel random to me, but I have no idea what inspired it,” said Spear.
Anyone with information regarding this or any other crime on campus should call the USM Police at x5211
Executive Editor Christy McKinnon contributed to this story.
News Editor John Bronson can be contacted at [email protected]
Executive Editor Christy McKinnon can be contacted at [email protected]