3 Alarm Fire At Apartment Under Construction (Photo) - 04/12/26

On Saturday night at 10:42pm Portland Fire crews were dispatched to a house on fire. Rescue 19 was first on scene and stated they had fire through the roof and that it was going to take a minute to make access as the building was surrounded by fencing.  The building was an approximately 100’x300’ L shaped apartment building under construction. The body of the fire on arrival was contained to the single story portion of the apartment building. 

A second and eventually third alarm were called as more apparatus and crews were needed to provide the number of resources necessary to both control and extinguish the fire. Ladder pipes were placed into action as crews fought the fire defensively from the exterior of the structure. Once they were able to control the fire, crews were sent interior with handlines to ensure the fire remained in the single-story portion of the structure.  The early use of ladder pipes enabled crews to save some of the structure from fire damage. 

Crews had the fire controlled and mostly extinguished within an hour of the dispatch.

The fire was recalled at 11:44pm keeping several truck companies on scene with their ladder pipes up. The cause of the fire is still under investigation. There were no injuries, and no one will be displaced as the building was still under construction.

PFR units on scene: 31

Fire Ops Personnel: 99

PF&R Responds To Van Fire With Trapped Occupants (Photo) - 04/06/26

PF&R responds to van fire with trapped occupants

Portland Fire & Rescue responded to reports of a van completely involved in fire with a reported 6 trapped occupants yesterday evening just before 8 PM. BOEC dispatchers received multiple calls from passerby vehicles that a van under I5 on Columbia Blvd near Delta Park indicating a van was completely engulfed in flames. The heavy smoke column rising into the sky made it evident to the arriving crews that there was a very significant fire and if accurate and occupants were trapped, lives were in jeopardy.

Truck 8 arrived and confirmed the fire and indicated they were going to perform extinguishment tasks first and extricate after the flames were suppressed. Engine 14 arrived and assumed command of the incident with the crew of Engine 14 assisting Truck 8 with the extinguishment of the flames. Engine 24 also arrived on scene and assisted in task required to address the emergency including fire suppression and medical triage.

Fortunately, with the assistance of a local community member, all occupants were safely out of the vehicle at the time the hose lines began to cool and extinguish the fire. While none of the occupants received any burn injuries, each was significantly injured because of the collision that occurred and was the cause of the fire. The details of the crash and cause are unknown currently.

A strike team of 5 ambulances was requested with the large number of injured occupants and AMR quickly began to direct ambulance crews to the scene. All occupants were trauma system entries because of the significance of the incident with varying degrees of injuries including broken bones and many cuts, scrapes, and other injuries.

This incident drew the resources of 3 different fire stations totaling 14 members of PF&R as well as the crews of 5 ambulances and an AMR supervisor to provide medical assistance and transport to area hospitals.

PF&R would like to not only thank AMR for their assistance in this incident but the dispatchers at BOEC and the responding members of PPB keeping us safe as we operated along with performing their investigative work.

Stations Involved

Station 8 – Arbor Lodge Neighborhood - Truck 8 – 4 members
Station 14 – Vernon Neighborhood - Engine 14 – 4 members
Station 24 – Overlook Neighborhood - Engine 24 – 4 members
C2 – 1 Chief Officer located at Station 24
C1 – 1 Chief Officer located in the Northwest District at Station 3

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