INCLUDES EXCLUSIVE FIREFIGHTING VIDEO | What’s left of this vacant residence was further damaged in this outer East Portland blaze …
Shrouded by smoke, Portland Fire & Rescue firefighters work to put out a blaze behind and inside a reportedly “squatter-occupied” house.
Story and photos by David F. Ashton
When smoke and fire was spotted coming from the yard of 7915 S. E. Harney Street by employees at the nearby US Post Office Service they called the 9-1-1 Center to report it.
Portland Fire & Rescue (PF&R) crews were dispatched to the area at 1:48 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon, October 2.
Lents Station 11’s Engine Company was the first of several stations to respond. On the way to the fire, their lieutenant reported back to dispatchers seeing “a substantial header” – column of dark smoke –erupting up from the area, while he was still blocks away.
Crews spray streams of water into the burning house, and on an adjacent tree that also caught fire.
Clackamas Fire District #1 firefighters provide “mutual aid” by arriving to help fight this fire, which was just across the county line.
A neighbor also reported the fire, and told the 9-1-1 Center call-taker that a squatter could be trapped in the burning building; or might have been injured in the fire.
Three minutes after Engine 11’s crew pulled up, they were joined by the Woodstock Station 25’s Ladder Company, Clackamas Fire District #1’s Ladder Truck 304 Company, and an ambulance.
Watch as firefighters blast a stream of water on the burning back yard of this house:
At the scene firefighters reported that something in the back yard, set back far from the street, was fully engulfed in fire – and the blaze had also spread across the dry grass, and ignited the back of the house, and a tree.
The Woodstock and Clackamas Ladder Truck firefighters were assigned to cutting “vertical ventilation” holes into the roof and gable, then spraying water into the fire from above, while Engine Company crews fought the fire from inside the structure.
With most of the fire extinguished, that heap of smoldering material to the left of the firefighters was the shed or shack that was completely consumed by fire.
“The ambulance was standing by as a result of information that indicated the potential for unauthorized occupants in the fire structure,” PF&R Public Information Officer Rick Graves, who was at the scene, told East Portland News.
But apparently nobody was, and that ambulance latter left the scene without a patient.
Through thick smoke, firefighters make their way around the unburned portion of the structure. Note the sign left in the yard, on the far left.
It didn’t take long for firefighters to put out the fire in the severely damaged building. But, crews kept spraying water on the back of the house, and the smoldering remains of the shed, the tree above it, and the grass in the area.
Covered in soot and debris, this PF&R Woodstock Station 25 Ladder Truck Company firefighter comes out of the burned house.
Property slated for development
Investigation shows that the derelict house is sited on property is owned by Roger Goldingay and Carol Otis, founders and former operators of outer East Portland food cart pod “Cartlandia” at 8225 S.E. 82nd Avenue of Roses – which was taken over in December 2022 by Arnie Blumenthal and renamed “Springwater Cart Park”.
Goldingay and Otis also own properties at 7909 S.E. Harney Street, landlocked property to the north at 7915, and 7910-1918 Harney Street; as well as 7928 S.E. Crystal Springs Boulevard.
It remains unclear if this fire may cause the owners to demolish this “squatter house” – or continue to let it stand.
In September 2021, the owners applied for a City of Portland permit to create a 76 townhouse-style multi-family development, which was approved in November 2021.
Apparently that project has stalled; there have been no further permits issued.
© 2024 David F. Ashton ~ East Portland News™
click here to subscribe
