2 Alarm Fire Damages Commercial Building In Rural Cornelius (Photo) - 10/07/26

At 6:46am on Wednesday October 7th, Cornelius Firefighters were dispatched to a reported commercial fire located at 2170 SW Lafollett Road, which is just outside the city limits in rural Washington County. While responding, crews observed a column of smoke and upgraded the incident to a 1st Alarm Fire. When firefighters arrived, they found a 17,000 square foot building with flames showing through the roof. Based on the size of the building, the first in chief officer upgraded the incident to a 2nd Alarm to bring additional resources to the scene. Firefighters began to attack the flames from the interior of the structure, but after approximately 15 minutes, those crews were withdrawn from the interior due to the roof becoming unstable. Crews transitioned to fight the flames from the exterior with hose lines as well as from a ladder truck. After fighting the flames from the exterior for 20 minutes, it was deemed safe enough for crews to re-enter the structure and extinguish the flames.

Full extinguishment of the fire was made difficult due to the roof section collapsing into the building and hiding several hot spots as well as difficult to access hot spots along the roof line. The incident was deemed under control almost two hours after the call was initially dispatched. Due to the rural location with no municipal fire hydrants nearby, fire crews had to bring water to the scene in 3,000 gallon water tenders. These water tenders would take turns shuttling water from the nearest fire hydrant in the city limits, which was a 1.25 miles round trip. One firefighter was assessed on scene for a minor extremity injury and did not require transport to a hospital.

The structure was originally built as a berry processing facility for the nearby agricultural community. The current use of the building was in the process of growing hemp. The building was divided into four sections, firefighters were able to keep the fire isolated to one of those four areas, with only smoke and water damaging the other three areas. The cause of the fire remains under investigation at this time.

Cornelius Fire Department was assisted on scene by Forest Grove Fire & Rescue, Hillsboro Fire & Rescue, Gaston Fire District, Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue, Banks Fire District, AMR Washington County, and Washington County Sheriffs Office.

Scene Information:

Engines - 7
Trucks - 2
Water Tenders - 7
Chiefs - 6

Total Fire Personnel: 59