Quick response saves Lents trailer park from tragedy

Here’s why this wooded, outer East Portland trailer park did not go up in flames …

After a fully suited-up firefighter enters a smoking trailer in this Lents neighborhood park and pulls wires from an electrical panel, other crew members walk back to check for any extension of the fire.

Story and photos by David F. Ashton

There was a massive callout of firefighters, both from Portland Fire & Rescue (PP&R), and to Clackamas Fire District #1, on May 23 at 3:56 p.m. They responded to a trailer park just east of SE 82nd Avenue of Roses, on Harney Street.

Crews arrived to find heavy smoke spewing from a small travel trailer permanently hooked up in the park.

A quick arrival, and prompt action by the fire crew, keep a trailer – and perhaps a section of the trailer park – from going up in flames.

Firefighters made entry, located an overheated panel distributing electrical power to a trailer’s stove, and disconnected the wiring.

When the power was removed from the circuit, the smoke stopped; there was no fire extension inside the trailer, a PP&R firefighter told East Portland News.

The fire was “recalled”, leaving PP&R Lents Station 11’s Engine company and Rescue Squad rigs at the scene.

With tragedy averted, firefighters stand down, and get ready for the next call.

“We arrived soon enough to keep the overheating panel from turning into a major fire,” said a firefighter at the scene.

“With them being so closely spaced, a fire in one trailer can easily spread to another, or to the large trees here,” he said.

Good work, firefighters! Go Station 11!

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