Summer Brings Rise to Portable Toilet Fires

From twincities.com: Of all the dark mysteries of the criminal mind, one bothers president of On Site Sanitation of Little Canada Dave Holm the most: Why do people burn portable toilets? 

According to Holm, the number of burned Porta-Potties usually increase in the summer. He expects to lose 35 units this year to fire, in addition to about 500 others tipped over by vandals or by windstorms.

Company officials willingly offer toilets as tools to fight diseases spread in big crowds and when vandals set fire to a toilet, the impact on public health and the environment is obvious. "We are sanitation workers. We protect the health and welfare of the public," Holm said

Ruined biffies sit in Holm's back lot like corpses in a morgue. He knelt beside a half-melted $2,000 toilet and examined the sparklers that set off the fire. "I just don't get the humor here," he muttered. "It's kind of pathetic." Rest of Article. . .  [Mark Godsey]