Transient-set fire displaces 14 apartment residents in Powellhurst-Gilbert

Officially, this was an ‘accidental’ fire, which spread from a transient camp. Others suspect this outer East Portland conflagration was arson, done by disgruntled campers …

Here’s the damage left behind after a “transient camp fire” set the side of the Tabor Pointe Apartments ablaze.

Story and photos by David F. Ashton

An apartment building set afire resulted in more than a dozen residents of the Tabor Pointe Apartments without their homes on Saturday night, August 31.

Here’s what happened: A single, Portland Fire & Rescue (PF&R) crew – from Lents Station 11’s Engine Company – was dispatched to a “transient fire” at 9:10 p.m. to SE 101st Avenue, just south of Division Street.

While the Engine Company was rolling toward the fire, multiple callers to the 9-1-1 Center about it led the incident to be upgraded to an “apartment building” fire.

Arriving firefighters find the side of the apartment building on fire, with flames spreading up to the attic space. PF&R Dennis Weis image

Upon arrival, crews found the fire had spread, running up the side of the apartment building and into the attic space.

Arriving simultaneously with Engine Company 11’s crew were PF&R Mill Park Station 7’s Ladder Truck firefighters, who immediately performed a search of all units, and got all remaining residents of the building out safely. Other crews help Engine 11’s firefighters work to put out the fire both inside and outside the building.

Crews work in the attic space to extinguish flames that had spread through the upper levels of the apartment building. PF&R Dennis Weis image

“A second alarm was called as a precaution, based on the extreme weather temperatures of the day and [the potential for heat illness in] crew members working inside pulling ceiling and ensuring that all the fire was extinguished,” PF&R Public Information Officer Rick Graves told reporters. “Ultimately, the fire was extinguished with no injuries.”

In the light of day, scattered items left behind in this encampment could be seen.

Arson?
At the site the next day, while taking photographs of the damage, a woman who wished to remain anonymous told us she was a friend of a displaced tenant who doubts this fire was accidental.

“The ‘campers’ here have been a real problem for quite a while, and have ‘gotten in the faces’ of the residents often,” the friend said. “Think about it: on a hot summer night, why would campers need to light up a huge bonfire to ‘stay warm’? Many here think it was arson, plain and simple.”

So far, officials have given no indication that they believe it to have been an arson fire. It could of course have been a cooking fire.

Five of the six apartment units were occupied, and all of those residents have been displaced. Red Cross was called to help provide lodging for the 14 displaced individuals.

Property an ‘Attractive Nuisance”?
By the way, records show that the unfenced property next to the apartment building – a spot favored by campers – is owned by a “Lincoln Loan Company” that operates from a Portland post office box.

As recently as August 21, the property was cited with a “Nuisance Vacant Complaint” – specifically, “Trash, debris, and non-trash items littering the property.”

To the residents burned out of their apartment homes, it was a “nuisance”, indeed.

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