Blaze in Lents ‘hoarder’ apartment challenges firefighters

Discover how quick response by Lents Town Center based firefighters kept the entire building from erupting in flames …

As the sun sets on Sunday evening in Lents, Portland Fire & Rescue crews put out a room fire in a triplex.

Story and photos by David F. Ashton

A fire erupted in a three-unit apartment house at 5623 SE 84th Avenue – just south of Foster Road – on Sunday night, March 2nd. It sent residents scrambling into the street.

Arriving shortly after their dispatch at 5:31 p.m., Portland Fire & Rescue (PF&R) Lents Station 11’s Rescue 11 and Engine Company reported seeing thick, dark smoke billowing out of the front door of a ground-floor apartment.

After the fire was out, soot was visible around the exterior door of the affected apartment.

Both the Engine Company and Ladder Truck Company from Woodstock Station 25 also pulled up moments later. Some of their crew members made sure there were no occupants still in the burning unit, and evacuated the building – as others were hooking up water hose lines and heading into the apartment.

Crews were able to put out the fire quickly, although the conditions were daunting, according to PF&R Fire Inspector & Assistant Public Information Officer Christine Pezzulo.

Firefighters check to make sure all of the fire has been put out.

“‘Hoarder conditions’ posed a challenge for the interior crew, working inside the burning unit,” Pezzulo later told East Portland News. “But, they successfully extinguished the fire in a timely manner.

“In this ‘room and contents fire’ at the triplex, firefighters were able to keep the fire from spreading outside that room, and kept it from impinging on the other apartments.”

Crews wait until all of the smoke has been blown out of the charred apartment before shutting down the powerful portable fan in the doorway.

The Woodstock Station 25 Ladder Truck crew opened windows and doors; then blew out the smoke with fans. “There were no injuries, and because the fire was contained to only one room, no residents were displaced,” concluded Pezzulo.

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