INCLUDES FIREFIGHTING VIDEO | 13 PHOTOS | See crews work to put out house fires in the Foster-Powell, Lents, and Mt. Scott-Arleta neighborhoods — within hours of each another …
From morning until dusk, Portland Fire & Rescue crews were called from fire to fire in Southeast Portland neighborhoods.
Story and photos by David F. Ashton
Dispatches to three house fires across the span of ten hours kept Portland Fire & Rescue (PF&R) stations across East Portland working hard on April 9.
10:46 a.m.
Fire rips through Foster-Powell ‘cluttered house’
Narrowly-spaced houses, and a rapidly growing blaze, cause firefighters’ concern at this Foster-Powell house fire.
On Wednesday morning, April 9th, several neighbors called the 9-1-1 Center to report seeing “lots of gray smoke” rising from a house at 4324 SE 65th Avenue.
PF&R crews were dispatched at 10:46 a.m. – and four minutes later, both Woodstock Station 25’s Engine and their Ladder Truck companies arrived, as did Lents Station 11’s Engine Company.
Watch as firefighter work to contain, and extinguish this house fire:
“The first arriving apparatus – Ladder Truck 25 – had rerouted from a low-acuity medical call to respond to this fire,” PF&R Public Information Officer Rick Graves told East Portland News.
“That truck’s officer confirmed heavy gray smoke pushing out of the front of the home,” he added.
Ladder Truck Company crews climb to the roof to begin cutting “vertical ventilation” holes.
Some firefighters rushed into the house to search for victims, while others hooked up water lines to Engine 25 and began spraying water through the front door of the “small, yet heavily cluttered, home” as Graves put it.
After a dangerous “flash-over” blew flames out the front door of this house, charring the exterior and porch posts, a firefighter returns back inside to continue the firefight.
Smoke belches out of the roof from holes cut to release the hot and combustible gasses.
Only moments thereafter, the there was a very dangerous “flash over” in the front room, where smoke and flammable gasses simultaneously reach their ignition temperatures leading to an explosively rapid spread across the room.
“Although the crew had properly donned their protective clothing, a crew member still received a minor burn to an ear, through the protective hood,” Graves reported.
These firefighters are pulling apart burning wood along the eaves of the house, and then battle the flames with a stream of water.
About then, crew members with PF&R Training Station 2 in Parkrose arrived and continued their “on-the-job training” by helping to cut more holes in the roof.
About ten minutes into the incident, the fire was under control – to the extent that it was no longer a danger to houses ten feet away. But as crews quenched the blaze inside the house, fire broke out on the porch.
Although the fire in this house was soon extinguished, crews remain on scene for hours, putting out embers.
Fortunately, with the addition of the Training Station crew (along with their command staff) there were a total 32 firefighters to extinguish the flames.
“One person was taken to the hospital by ambulance as a ‘precautionary transport’ Graves said. “This fire remains under investigation.”
6:39 p.m.
Squatters blamed for torching abandoned houses in Lents
Working their way around the Jersey barriers set along an abandoned road, fire rigs make their way toward two burning squatter-occupied houses.
On the western border of the Foster Floodplain Natural Area, along the Springwater Corridor Trail and just south of SE Foster Road, fire broke out at two abandoned houses.
Situated on the eastern edge of the Freeway Lands Company, PF&R was dispatched to SE 101st Avenue – it’s been long closed to traffic – at Woodstock Boulevard, making the fire difficult to reach.
-9 While firefighters work their way toward two blazing houses, the fire grows hotter and stronger.
Minutes after being dispatched, at 6:39 p.m., PF&R Gilbert Station 29’s Engine Company rolled in, as did Lents Station 11’s two-person Rescue Unit – their crews reporting back to dispatchers “We’re seeing two houses, fully involved in heavy fire activity.”
As East Portland News arrived, explosions were heard from the ramshackle structures, both by then fully engulfed in flames. Workers with area businesses came out to watch. They remarked that squatters had “taken over” those houses, and that the explosions were most likely from propane canisters used for cooking food, “and dope”, as one of them volunteered.
PF&R hasn’t yet released the cause of this fire, or if it was thought to have been caused by squatters.
Apparently the boarded-up windows didn’t keep squatters from getting into this house, now in flames.
Other crews soon arrived at the gravel path just south of SE Foster Road. Because the nearest fire hydrant was some distance away, firefighters hooked one engine up to the hydrant, and they pulled water lines along to another engine for “relay pumping”.
The Commander directed the crews to take a “defensive fire posture” – to stay outside – because of previous fire damage to the houses, including “large holes in the floor”.
By about 7 p.m., the second fire of the day had been contained; the original two crews stayed and kept spraying down the embers, while other firefighters were released back in service. But they had little time to relax.
7:39 p.m.
Dog perishes in Mt. Scott-Arleta house fire
In case they’re needed, firefighters carry ladders to a Mt. Scott-Arleta neighborhood house on fire.
Alert neighbors calling the 9-1-1 Center told operators that they were concerned about “smoke from a roof and a dog inside a house” at 6510 SE Tolman Street.
PF&R stations from Westmoreland, Woodstock, Lents, downtown Portland – and, once again, the Parkrose Training Station – were dispatched to the third fire of the day at 7:39 p.m.
As Westmoreland Station 20’s Engine Company pulled in, their lieutenant reported to dispatchers that smoke was billowing out of the house’s windows. Firefighters began their search of the house, and used water from their own engine’s tank to start fighting the fire, while the water supply lines were still being hooked up.
With the fire quickly extinguished, a firefighter sets up a powerful, portable fan in the doorway to blow smoke out of the house.
“This appears to be a kitchen fire, involving a stove and cabinets, and the fire is mostly extinguished,” a firefighter soon radioed to the Commander. “The fire didn’t spread beyond the kitchen.”
Using specially designed equipment, crew members work to resuscitate a dog that they’d swiftly evacuated from the burning house.
Crews assigned to “search and rescue”, who looked for the dog who was supposed to be in the house, found it unresponsive and not breathing. “Despite 20 minutes of resuscitation efforts by firefighters, the dog sadly was dead from smoke inhalation,” Graves told reporters.
This, like all fires, are afterword examined by PF&R Fire Investigators; the specific cause of this apparent kitchen fire has not been revealed.
© 2025 David F. Ashton ~ East Portland News™
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