A trash fire ignited behind the Pairadice Apartments at 640 E 15th Avenue between Hilyard and Patterson streets on Friday night around 12:30 a.m. and was extinguished by Eugene Springfield Fire Department personnel. Neither the fire department nor the group of people who called 9-1-1 said they know how the fire started.

Jess Kim, Sun Kim, Kelvin Ho and Minoh Suh were walking through the alley early Friday morning when they saw smoke billowing from a Royal Refuse trash bin locked behind a chain link fence behind the apartment building. Minutes later, the fire went slightly over the top of the bin, according to Suh, prompting the four to call 9-1-1. Suh said it took the fire fighters less than five minutes to arrive on the scene.

“The fire was dying down by the time they arrived,” Suh said.

Lance Lighty, one of the fire fighters on the scene, said the fire posed potential danger because it was right above the trash bin and next to a wooden wall right below one of the Pairadice Apartments. Lighty said a large fire could easily ignite this wooden part of the apartment, putting the property at risk.