Two major Inner Southeast house fires, in the span of only ten hours, kept Portland Fire & Rescue busy on Wednesday, April 9th – in the Foster Powell and Mt. Scott-Arleta neighborhoods.

10:46 a.m. – Flash-over in ‘cluttered house’

On Wednesday morning, March 9, several neighbors called the 9-1-1 Center, reporting seeing “lots of gray smoke” from the house at 4324 S.E. 65th Avenue in the Foster-Powell neighborhood.

PF&R crews were dispatched to the fire at 10:46 a.m. – and four minutes later, both Woodstock Station 25’s Engine and Ladder Truck companies arrived, as did Lents Station 11’s Engine Company.

“The first arriving apparatus Ladder Truck 25, had been redirected from a low-acuity medical call to respond to this fire,” PF&R Public Information Officer Rick Graves told THE BEE afterwards. “That truck’s officer reported heavy gray smoke pushing out of the front of the home.”

Some of the firefighters rushed into the house, searching for victims, while other crews hooked up water lines to Engine 25 and began spraying water into the front door of the “small, yet heavily cluttered, home”, as Graves put it.

Moments later there was an extremely dangerous “flash over” in the front room – that’s when smoke and flammable gasses simultaneously reach their ignition temperatures leading to an explosion of flame throughout the space.

“Although the crew had properly donned protective clothing, one crew member did receive a minor burn to an ear right through the protective hood,” Graves reported.

About then, crew members with PF&R Training Station 2 in Parkrose pulled in, and continued their “on-the-job training” by helping to cut holes in the roof for vertical ventilation, allowing smoke and flammable gasses to escape.

Some ten minutes later, the fire was under sufficient control that it was no longer a threat to nearby houses that were only about 10 feet away. But as crews quenched the blaze inside the house, fire broke out on the porch. Fortunately, with the addition of the Training Station crew (along with their command staff), there were 32 firefighters on hand to extinguish the flames.

“One person was taken to the hospital by ambulance as a ‘precautionary transport’ Graves said. “The fire remains under investigation.” There is no damage estimate, but the fire gutted much of the home.

7:39 p.m. – Dog dies in Mt. Scott-Arleta

Alert neighbors calling the 9-1-1 Center told operators that they were concerned about “smoke from the roof, and dog inside a house” at 6510 S.E. Tolman Street.

PF&R stations from Westmoreland, Woodstock, Lents, downtown Portland – and, again, from the Parkrose Training Station – were dispatched to this fire at 7:39 p.m. later the same day.
As Westmoreland Fire Station 20’s Engine Company pulled up, their lieutenant reported to dispatchers seeing smoke billowing out of the house’s windows. Firefighters began their search of the house, and used water in their engine’s tank to start putting out the fire, while water supply lines were being hooked up.

“This appears to be a kitchen fire involving a stove and cabinets, and the fire is mostly extinguished,” a firefighter soon radioed to the Commander. “The fire didn’t spread beyond the kitchen.”

Crews searched for the dog that was reportedly in the house – and found it, unresponsive and not breathing. “Despite twenty minutes of resuscitation efforts by firefighters, sadly, the dog died of smoke inhalation,” Graves told reporters.

This blaze, as are all fires, was examined by PF&R Fire Investigators; the specific cause of this kitchen fire has not yet been revealed.

A personal note – as THE BEE was walking in two blocks to reach the first fire, we heard and felt that concussive “flashover” blast which the firefighters who were already in the house survived, thanks to their protective suits. In this exclusive BEE VIDEO, here’s what we saw and heard as we arrived at the incinerated house – https://youtu.be/7Wo6rHnww2s