Fire guts Brentwood-Darlington ‘problem house’

INCLUDES NARRATED VIDEO | One look, and you’ll see why neighbors say they’re relieved no one was injured in this outer East Portland blaze, but they hope the occupants in and around this unkempt rental house will be encouraged to move on …

With gusty east winds fanning the flames, firefighters hasten to get this major house fire in the Brentwood-Darlington neighborhood under control.

Story and photos by David F. Ashton

A report of flames erupting from the circa-1925, 528 sq. ft. house at 5706 SE Lambert Street on Wednesday, January 21st, triggered the dispatch of firefighters from several Portland Fire & Rescue (PF&R) stations at 7:29 a.m.

Watch firefighters in action, as they put out his fire:

About five minutes later, PF&R Woodstock Station’s Ladder Truck Company – and both the Engine and Rescue Companies of Lents Station 11 – were at the scene; a lieutenant reported back to dispatchers seeing a wind-whipped blaze flaring at the residence.

The burning house may have been unoccupied, but new-looking tents pitched in the yard, and the motor home in the side yard, indicate that people have been living on the property.

“I saw people running from the yard as the fire started going,” a neighbor told East Portland News as he watched the firefighters at work.

“Seeing the house burn, I’m both happy and sad,” he added. “It’s always sad when someone’s house burns down – but the people living here have made this a ‘problem house’ on the street.” More about this later …

Describing this firefight is PF&R Public Information Officer Rick Graves.

“At first, we were concerned about the fire burning the overhead electrical power lines; but as it turned out, the power to the house had previously been shut off,” PF&R Public Information Officer Rick Graves said at the scene.

“Although the tents pitched here in the front yard look relatively new, it doesn’t appear that anyone was living in the house itself,” Graves remarked. “The house was highly cluttered, making it difficult for firefighters to enter and move around inside; but, once they made a path, they knocked the fire down.”

With so much clutter inside, firefighters attack the fire from outside the structure.

It’s not known if this acetylene bottle, removed by a firefighter from the house – it still had flame coming out of where the valve had burned off – contributed to this fire.

Providing “mutual aid” to PF&R crews, both of the Clackamas County Fire District 3 Engine and Ladder Truck Companies responded to the call.

“With the wind, we were also concerned because there’s a lot of material, a lot of debris, all of which can be fuel for fire – in addition to ‘auxiliary structures’,” Graves pointed out.

After the active fire has been extinguished, this firefighter uses his hooked “Pike pole” to dislodge charred wood, looking for hidden, active flames.

Firefighters continued to strip down the structure and dig through piles of debris, spraying hotspots with water, as well as with “Class A Foam” which absorbs deeply into smoldering debris piles. Ladder Truck crews climbed onto the roof to cut holes through which they could access the fire in the attic.

Eventually, two PF&R Fire Investigators arrived to examine the fire debris. No one was injured, the cause of this fire remains under investigation.

A ‘troubled house’
We looked into who owns the property. According to Multnomah County records, the house – situated on a double-wide lot – is owned by a couple with an address in Sandy, east of Gresham.

Cosmetics set up on this table in the front yard indicates someone was recently living there.

Records show that officers from the Portland Permitting & Development – specifically, the Property Compliance Division (formerly under the Bureau of Development Services) – has investigated numerous “Residential Rental Nuisance” complaints about this property in just the past year.

The City of Portland prohibits occupying unpermitted structures like tents, campers, RVs for residential use (Code 29.50.050) – but if those living on a property are doing so by explicit permission of the property owner, they might be able continue to do so.

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