PF&R Respond To Two Fires North Portland (Photo) -05/04/23

Portland Fire & Rescue respond to two fires in North Portland

Portland Fire & Rescue addressed two nearly simultaneous fires earlier today in North Portland. The first fire dispatched was a shipboard fire that pulls many resources because of the potential complexities of a fire abord a ship. The second fire dispatched 8 minutes later was a residential fire in the Piedmont Neighborhood.

At 10:10 AM a shipboard fire was dispatched to crews from our partners at BOEC. Due to the potentially dangerous conditions posed by a shipboard fire, many resources are assigned to the first alarm dispatch which calls for five engines, four trucks, two fireboats, two rehab rigs, our land based marine unit, and 3 chiefs which is nearly 60 firefighters in total. This incident was reported to be a 34’ research vessel with a fire in the engine compartment. The crew of 4 on board was able to beach the vessel in 2’ of water and jump off the ship for their own safety and secure the vessel to a large deadhead tree in the area using their bowline. The nearest available landmark for the ship crew to communicate was Terminal Four, a 262-acre multipurpose facility that features four ship berths capable of handling various cargoes. This large property behind 8’ tall cyclone fencing with coiled barbed security wire made land-based access to the vessel on fire difficult. First arriving crews were able to communicate via cell phone to the researchers to home in on their location in the Willamette River using the airhorn as a communication mechanism. As the process of location was occurring from the land-based crews it was reported that the on-board extinguishing system had addressed much of the active flames but had not eliminated all the fire. It was at this time that a residential fire in the same area of Portland was dispatched out to our available responding stations. With the knowledge of an onboard extinguishing system activated, no potential exposure concerns, and all of the vessels crew safe, and another potential fire in the same area, the Battalion Chief in command released a bulk of the responders to be redirected to the residential fire. Portland Fireboat 6, the closest fireboat, was able to make access to the vessel which still had heavy smoke pushing out of the engine compartment. The crew of the fireboat boarded the vessel and put nearly 200g of water on the fire to complete the extinguishment process. The fire aboard the vessel was extinguished 24 minutes after the call was sent out by BOEC and all crews were clear of the scene in less than an hour.

As noted above, PF&R was dispatched to a possible residential fire in the Piedmont Neighborhood at 10:18 AM, eight minutes after the shipboard fire was sent out. This fire was on the 800 block of N. Farragut. With the entire north end assigned to the shipboard fire, the nearest available engine was in the downtown core, at best a 10-minute response to the addressed location. Following the dispatch, a closer fire engine was able to add themselves to this fire, but their location was still quite a distance out. Traffic at this time of day on the main thoroughfares was congested that further delayed the response times of responding crews.

The first engine arrived at 10:25 and communicated a 1 ½ story residence with heavy fire on the backside of the house. The next arriving emergency vehicle was a heavy squad that had diverted from the shipboard fire incident. This emergency vehicle is the primary specialty rig of the Land Based Marine Unit and is intentionally outfitted with tools and equipment to improve our successes on a shipboard fire. Although the tools carried on the rig are specialized for shipboard firefighting, this crew operates most of their calls of fire engines and is quite skilled at residential firefighting and immediately got working on firefighting activities by helping the first engine connect to the hydrant and stretching hose to the backside of the residence to begin the extinguishing process. The first hose line in use was able to quickly extinguish the flames on the covered back porch and was able to reposition the hose to the front of the home to use in an interior offensive fire attack. 

The first arriving battalion chief arrived and joined the engine officer and took command of the fire. There was a direction to have 2 attack lines put in play with each having a backup line to protect the egress if the interior firefighters needed to quickly escape the structure on fire. Heavy fire was noted at the eave line and confirmation of fire in the attic was communicated. The truck crews on scene were either involved in searching the home for residents or going to the roof to provide for vertical ventilation by cutting a hole in the roofing material. Additional crews were directed to go interior and pull ceiling to provide access for water streams to cool and extinguish the flames in the attic.

With crews cutting holes in the roof and pulling ceiling from the main floor, the hose streams from above and below were able to extinguish the fire in the attic space while crews were able to eliminate all fire on the backside of the home from the backyard. The crews directed to search the home reported that the primary and secondary searches of the home were complete with no one found on the inside of the structure. 

This main body of fire was significantly reduced in 7 minutes after the arrival of the first engine and completely extinguished in an additional 13 minutes. There were no reported injuries. The cause of the fire is under investigation. There is one individual displaced from the residence. 

Portland Fire & Rescue would like to thank our partners at BOEC and Pacific Power for their assistance in these fires.

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