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Court documents released today regarding the March 10 fire at the Elephants Delicatessen on Northwest 22nd Avenue show that the woman charged with starting the blaze was using a torch lighter to look for food scraps in a trash bin.
Catherine E. Stough, 56, was booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center yesterday on misdemeanor charges of reckless burning and second-degree criminal mischief.
According to the court document, the Fire Investigations Unit was canvassing the area around Northwest 23rd Avenue and West Burnside Street. An investigator showed a houseless woman the picture of a person wrapped in a blanket and asked if it was her. She initially said no. About 15 minutes later, she approached the investigators and admitted it was her in the picture and that she started the fire at Elephants Deli. She went on:
‘’I started the fire at Elephants Deli, it was an accident, I didn’t mean to do it...I feel really bad because it was such a nice place, but I was hungry so I was looking in the bin in the bussing area. I was using my torch lighter because I couldn’t see, and it accidentally caught some tissue paper on fire...I didn’t know what to do, I was looking for someone to help and call 911, but no one was around...I went around the backside to see if I could crawl under but I couldn’t.’’
The fire went on to cause $2.5 million in damage, according to the document.
Stough was extremely remorseful during her account of starting the fire, according to the investigators; she felt she destroyed the deli’s family legacy. During her interview with investigators, Stough talked at length about people putting poison on her clothing, and her belief that people involved in human trafficking were stalking her.
Stough’s criminal record is extensive and goes back to the 1980s. Most recently, in January 2025, Stough was charged with possession of methamphetamine in Washington County.
At 1 am on March 10, Portland Fire & Rescue responded to the fire at 115 NW 22nd Ave. The blaze started outside the business and then spread to the interior and the roof, the fire bureau said, and the nearly 60 staff who responded had to change tactics multiple times to extinguish the fire.
