Crews from Portland Fire were dispatched to a possible fire being called in from the intersection of NE 100th and Glisan at 2:15 PM this afternoon. Crews arrived to find no fire problem at this intersection, but a column of smoke was seen to the north of this location by the first arriving engine. This engine traveled eastbound on Glisan and turned north on 99th Avenue in the direction of the smoke column. They arrived at the location of the former Elks Club in NE Portland to find a work crew inside the fenced area on the perimeter of the property with smoke appearing near their work van. Upon further investigation there was grey smoke was pushing out from an HVAC vent on the west side of the structure. The engine took command of the incident and began directing crews to enter the fence area off NE 100th Avenue.
It is a 13000 square foot multi story structure that was built in 1973 that has been vacant for seven years that has been used to store office furniture, so it has a potential to have an increased fire load. There is a temporary cyclone fence wrapped around the entire footprint of the property made access a bit difficult for the responding fire crews. The structure also had work crews present daily as the building is in a slow process of recycling and demolition so there was a potential concern for a worker to be on the inside.
The first fire rig to enter the fenced in area off 100th confirmed active fire on the east side of the building. The first arriving chief took command of the situation at this time and directed a crew to force open the door on the south side of the building and locate the fire on the inside of the structure.
It was reported that there was good visibility on the inside of the structure with many open windows and holes in the building to allow the smoke to escape naturally. This good visibility allowed first team on the inside found the fire quickly. With the smoke being directed up and out of the building through the existing holes and the HVAC system the firefighters heard the fire before they had any visual evidence of the location. The crew was able to communicate the best path for a hose line to be brought into the building and extinguish the fire.
The entire structure was searched multiple times as hose lines were be put into place to be certain there was not anyone remaining on the inside. The work crews were interviewed to see if they had any information on the fire itself.
The fire was extinguished within minutes after the location identified and the incident was closed shortly afterwards. Due to confusing layout and size of the building, all crews remained on scene working for 30 minutes before anyone cleared the scene.
This fire is currently under investigation by the Portland Fire Investigations Unit.
