INCLUDES MOP-UP VIDEO | Even in a blowing blizzard, Portland Fire & Rescue crews arrived promptly to put out this challenging outer East Portland house a blaze …
This supply line hose, snaking up SE 101st Avenue, supplies the water firefighters are using to douse flames outside and inside a burning Lents neighborhood house.
Story and photos by David F. Ashton
On Thursday morning, February 13 – after the show blizzard began – a fire broke out in the Lents neighborhood, likely on the deck behind a house at 10104 SE Insley Street.
Portland Fire & Rescue (PF&R) crews, dispatched at 11:07 a.m., made their way to the location in rigs outfitted with tire chains.
Watch as firefighters fight this persistent fire, during a blizzard:
Coming from their station in Lents Town Center, PF&R Station 11’s Engine Company made their way north on SE 92nd Avenue, east on Harold Street. Four minutes after dispatch, as the engine was about to turn north on SE 101st Avenue, a crew member radioed, “Heavy fire showing from the back of the house”.
Working mostly on the back side of the house and wooden patio, firefighters root out live fire, and glowing embers.
One minute later, PF&R Mill Park Station 7’s Engine Company pulled up to assist. “All people are out of the structure,” a firefighter radioed to the Battalion Chief.
As Engine 11’s engineer engaged the rig’s pump, crew members pulled a water line hose attached to the output and began fighting the fire with the onboard water supply. At the same time, firefighters pulled a water supply line hose from the back of engine, dragging it downhill, and across SE Harold Street, where they hooked it up to a hydrant.
Another Ladder Truck Company member ladders up to the roof as other firefighters continue cutting holes to put out the fire in the attic.
“There’s a lot of exterior porch fire; it’s extending to the structure,” was the report from a firefighter.
A Portland General Electric “Eagle Crew” truck arrived and cut the electric power lines to the house.
With the electric power line cut by PGE in front of the residence, a PF&R Fire Investigator looks for evidence at the deck behind the house.
“Accounted for both occupants, no medical needed at this time,” was heard over the radio.
About 10 minutes into the firefight, a crew member reported that the fire was substantially knocked down. “There’s still a lot of fire on the Charley side [the back of the house]” another crew member broke in.
Eventually the firefighters prevailed, and the blowing snow slowly collected outside the house as wisps of smoke continued to rise from the ruins, and the firefighters ended their active fire fight and started their “overhaul” of the building.
With the windows blown out from the fire below, firefighters continue working on the roof, putting out active fire in the attic.
The crew of PF&R Mill Park Station 7’s Ladder Truck Company – it had arrive three minutes after the first rigs pulled up – had laddered up to the roof where they cut “vertical ventilation” holes permitting hot, explosive gasses to vent. However, they kept cutting new holes as they discovered fire running across the attic.
“We’re still see some flames inside; we want to keep a lot of water going on this; there’s still some active fire in the attic area,” crackled the radio.
Still looking for clues to how, and where, the fire started, this PF&R Fire Investigator takes a closer look at smoldering refuse behind the house.
PF&R Public Information Manager Rick Graves later told East Portland News, “a crew member commented that this was a very substantial fire”.
Graves confirmed that there were no reported injuries related to the incident.
Two PF&R Fire Investigators arrived and began an investigation, but have yet to reveal the possible cause of the blaze that razed this residence, owned by Proud Ground Community Land Trust, an organization “that makes homeownership affordable for first-time buyers”.
© 2025 David F. Ashton ~ East Portland News™
click here to subscribe
