Find out why fighting this outer East Portland house fire had its challenges …
Fire at a home, across the street from Lents Park, brings emergency first responders to the area.
Story and photos by David F. Ashton
A fire that started in the garage at a residence located at 4607 SE 88th Avenue brought out the companies from several Portland Fire & Rescue (PF&R) Stations at 7:23 p.m. on November 27.
The Lents Station 11 “Rescue” two-person rig was first at the scene, and reported back to the dispatcher that the garage was “fully involved” in fire which appeared to be spreading to the interior of the house.
Firefighters work quickly to extinguish the fire in the garage.
Almost immediately, crews from Woodstock Station 25 arrived with both their engine and truck companies. Some firefighters made sure reports that everyone had gotten out of the house were correct; others pulled water lines a block to the south, hooking up to a hydrant at SE Schiller Street.
Moments later, crews were reporting that the kitchen and back part of the structure was ablaze, and the fire was spreading.
It didn’t take long for firefighters to quench the fire in the garage, while others moved to attack the fire in the home’s interior.
Crews use powerful chainsaws to cut open the roof.
The crew of Ladder Truck 25 clambered up the roof, and began cutting holes to provide “vertical ventilation” – allowing hot, toxic gasses to escape – and also to give access to douse the fire in the attic.
After fire flares up in the garage and is doused again, firefighters again turn their attention to this part of the house.
After flames rekindled in the garage, firefighters again snuffed them out, and quickly made plans to drag the burned car inside it out onto the driveway.
So far, there’s been no official word about what caused the fire, or an estimate of the dollar amount of damages caused by it; this fire remains under investigation.
© 2017 David F. Ashton ~ East Portland News
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