Explosion and fire demolish Centennial apartments

Officials haven’t yet said, but residents and neighbors think that fireworks had something to do with this two-alarm fire in outer East Portland …

After an explosion rips through this four-unit apartment building in the Centennial neighborhood and sets it ablaze, firefighters come out on force to battle the conflagration. Photo Credit: Greg Muhr – PF&R

By David F. Ashton

And explosion and fire on Sunday, December 7 triggered the dispatch at 10:17 a.m. of Portland Fire & Rescue (PF&R) crews – eventually as many as 80 firefighters – at to the Villa 162 Apartments complex at 304 SE 162nd Avenue, between Stark and Burnside streets.

From what was said in radio calls at the time, crews arriving reported back to dispatchers seeing “heavy fire showing” and significant damage to the structure.

The explosion tore the second floor partially off the building. Photo Credit: Dennis Weis – PF&R

The first arriving PF&R Battalion Chief immediately upgraded the incident to a second alarm fire, adding more resources to the incident, including Gresham Fire crews.

Firefighters went to work to extinguish the flames while also making sure all other occupants of the apartment complex were safe.

The cause of the fire was a “catastrophic explosive event” that destroyed a four-plex building – with two units upstairs and two more on the bottom floor – in this 28-unit apartment complex.

With the fire extinguished, crews stand back and await orders. Photo Credit: Dennis Weis – PF&R

Witnesses told reporters that two people escaped fire on the second floor by jumping down to the ground; one of the individuals who jumped was taken to a hospital in critical condition, an official revealed.

“The whole front side of the structure is gone, ” PF&R Public Information Officer Christine Pezzulo said at the time. “All the windows are blown out, and structure itself is unstable; the explosions damaged the whole front side of the structure.”

The side wall of this unit was ripped off by the explosion, and hangs down the side of the building. Photo Credit: Dennis Weis – PF&R

The PF&R Fire Investigations Unit (FIU) conferred with the Metro Explosives Disposal Unit, and a PF&R Structural Engineering Specialist with their Structural Collapse Team.

After they talked it out, all agreed that it was unsafe to enter the structure, so after obtaining a criminal search warrant, the team flew a drone into the unit where the explosion originated — remotely examining and documenting the interior of the apartment.

Looking from the back, furniture that was blown out of the apartment remains in the space between buildings. Photo Credit: Greg Muhr – PF&R

No results of the drone warrant search have been released; the FIU has interviewed a person of interest, but no arrests have yet been made. We’ll follow this story for you as it develops.

Meantime, if you have information about this incident, call the PF&R Tip Line at 503-823-3473 or send an email to arsontips@police.portlandoregon.gov, and let them know this is about Case No. 25-140225.

On our Front Page: Photo Credit: Dennis Weis – PF&R

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