Fire guts Powellhurst-Gilbert house

Here’s what’s been learned about this outer East Portland blaze …

In the Powellhurst-Gilbert neighborhood, smoke rises from the smoldering home after it caught fire and burned vigorously for a time.

Story and photos by David F. Ashton

After a fire broke out on the morning of February 3 at a house at 13641 SE Raymond Street, Portland Fire & Rescue (PF&R) crews were dispatched at 9:50 a.m.

Moments later, PF&R’s Rockwood Station’s crew, riding Engine 31, pulled up the steep street and reported back to dispatch seeing smoke, as they approached – and then finding “a fully involved house fire” at the address.

While some firefighters entered and searched the structure for victims, other crew members pulled out water line houses to begin the firefight.

With a “flat” waterline hose discarded next to the road, firefighters pull out another waterline with which to continue battling the blaze.

According to information dispatched by an unidentified PF&R official at 10:04 a.m. that morning, “Firefighting efforts are off to a rough start, as the first engine crew in reports their hose line was damaged on entry and has gone flat.”

Backup firefighters – there were two additional engine companies at the scene – immediately got another hose line out, charged it with water, and started spraying down the fighters inside the structure who had been caught with a damaged hose.

Working on the roof of the burning home, these Ladder Truck crew members try to extinguish the fire from above. PF&R image

Firefighters from PF&R Mill Park Station 7’s Ladder Truck went up onto the house, cut holes in the roof, and started dousing the attic and interior with water.

Although the shell of the structure smoldered for hours, the active fire was extinguished by 10:11 a.m.

With the fire out, firefighters stand down, and await the PF&R Fire Investigator to begin sifting through the site for a cause.

It appeared that a resident, perhaps the homeowner, had escaped the blaze; no injuries were reported. So far, there’s been no official word about what caused the fire, or the amount of damages caused.

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