Wall fire damages outer East Portland home

See how lots of firefighters, promptly responding, kept the blaze from completely destroying a house …

Firefighters from far and wide race to a house afire here, in East Portland.

Story and photos by David F. Ashton

A residential fire in an owner-occupied home on Monday evening, May 1, swiftly brought a host of firefighters to 5920 SE Henderson Street at 7:44 p.m.

Within minutes of the dispatch, PF&R Lents Station Engine Company 11, Woodstock Station Ladder Truck Company 25, and Mill Park’s Ladder Truck 7 converged on the location. As crews pulled up, one of the PF&R lieutenants radioed back to dispatchers seeing heavy smoke coming from the garage and front door of the house.

PF&R Woodstock Station Ladder Truck Company 25 crew members clamber up a ladder, chainsaws in hand, to determine whether to cut open the roof to vent the attic.

Some firefighters pulled water lines to supply Engine Company 11 truck which served as the pumper, while others searched the house for any victims.

Also arriving at the fire were crews fro9m Clackamas Fire District #1’s Engine Company, providing “mutual support”, primarily in the form of extra personnel.

Smoke lingers in the garage area, as firefighters search for additional fire in the walls and attic space.

It took only 13 minutes for crews to get the fire knocked down. Firefighters then checked both in the house and in the attached garage, looking to soak any remaining embers.

“This was a fire in the wall between the garage and the living quarters, with smoke rising and collecting in the attic,” PF&R Public Information Officer Rick Graves told East Portland News a few hours later.

“Initial reports indicated there was fire in the attic space, but it was later determined to be smoke that had collected from the small fire in the wall of the main level of the home,” Graves continued.

Some crew members work inside the structure, putting out the fire inside wall that adjoins the garage.

“The fire was accessed in the wall and was extinguished, without the flames spreading throughout the structure,” reported Graves. “There was no need to cut open up the roof for any ventilation,” he added.

Apparently, the occupants of the home escaped without injury, and the residence was still habitable. The fire is still under investigation.

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