Ohio Responders on High Alert Following Fourth Attack

The Toledo Fire Department urged firehouses across the city to keep their doors locked and remain extra vigilant Friday, after authorities confirmed the fourth attack on a fire station this week.

Officials discovered a bullet mark on a fire truck's door Friday morning. The truck was parked at Station 18 on Lewis Avenue in West Toledo, the same firehouse where firefighters found a burning package the day before.

On Wednesday afternoon, shots were reportedly fired outside two other fire stations: Station 9 in South Toledo and Station 6 in East Toledo. A bullet pierced a glass garage door at Station 6 on Starr Avenue.

No one was hurt in any of the incidents.

The latest bullet mark to be reported had been spotted by a firefighter on Tuesday, but he did not realize at the time what it was, Fire Chief Luis Santiago said Friday. The mark, on the truck's driver's-side door, was not there a week ago, the chief said.

The incidents are under investigation by the Toledo Police Department with help from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, Chief Santiago said. The Toledo Police department bomb squad was called to remove the incendiary device Thursday.

The fire chief would not discuss the ongoing inquiry or reveal the burning package's contents, but said it appears fire stations are being targeted.

Chief Santiago said he was baffled that anyone would seek to harm firefighters.

"I can't even speculate why this might be happening," the chief said. "Our job is dangerous enough as it is, and when activities like this are happening it certainly puts a whole new spin on things."

Deputy Police Chief Derrick Diggs said the incidents are being treated very seriously, and urged the public to step forward with any information. He said police officers have been ordered to check on fire stations during their regular patrols.

Meanwhile, all fire stations have been advised to lock their doors and watch for suspicious activity around their buildings and while out on call.

Lt. Matt Hertzfeld, a fire department spokesman, said people can still access the firehouses, deemed as "safe places" for the community, by ringing doorbells.

Some fire stations regularly keep their doors locked, but others -- particularly those located in residential neighborhoods -- often raise their overhead doors during nice weather, Lieutenant Hertzfeld said.

Stations have been ordered to lock their doors at other times in the past, such as after September 11, 2001, and when neo-Nazis visited the city in 2005, he added.

"I don't see it impacting [the firehouses] being safe places," Lieutenant Hertzfeld assured. "It'd be the same if it were the winter and the station was closed off. It's more of just a heightened awareness right now."

At Fire Station 13 on Front Street in East Toledo, Battalion Chief James Price said his firefighters are heeding the department's advice by being especially vigilant inside the building and out. He said the station normally keeps its doors locked.

"It's unnerving," Chief Price said. "It's definitely not something that we're used to dealing with."

However, at Fire Station 6 Friday afternoon, the site of one of the shooting incidents earlier in the week, the garage doors were up and the main door was unlocked. An officer at the firehouse declined to comment.

Lieutenant Hertzfeld said, despite the unease, firefighters will continue to respond to calls as usual.

"We're firemen and we respond to incidents," Lieutenant Hertzfeld said. "It's not like we can go into a shell and shut down.

"We still have to serve the public."

McClatchy-Tribune News Service