Portland Fire & Rescue responded to a residential fire in the Lloyd District Neighborhood during the morning rush hour earlier today. The call was made by a passerby with the information that smoke was pushing out of a large home near the corner of NE 6th and NE Halsey. This is a location PF&R crews have familiarity, and many cautions were shared over the radio as crews were responding to the incident.
Reports of previous fires at the location with holes in the walls and floors and the structure has heavy clutter throughout were just 2 of the transmissions shared prior to arrival.
Crews arrived to have light smoke showing from the side and back of a large 2-story house with overnight residents quickly leaving the building. The command officer directed crews to remove all plywood coverings of the entry points and the windows and to begin an offensive fire attack for the engine companies and a primary and secondary search for the truck companies. This direction has the engine crews take hose lines inside the home and extinguish the fire while the truck crew performs an extensive search looking for any possible individual unable to escape the structure. A ladder was placed at all windows of the upper story to allow for a quick escape of any interior crews if there was a need. A reminder of the interior conditions and to proceed with caution was conveyed to all crews many times over the radio.
A thorough search of the structure did not find any resident and the fire was located and extinguished. Walls of both the interior and exterior of the home were opened to be certain there was not any flame present and travelling up into the attic space.
This fire was in a structure constructed in 1911 as a single-family home that was renovated and converted into a duplex in the late 80’s. This conversion cuts up the original open floor plan and compartmentalizes the structure into different sections to accommodate for more occupancy which poses a few challenges for a fire response. This conversion reduces the abilities of the firefighters on scene to access different parts of the structure from the inside. For example, to gain access to a location within the structure that has confirmed fire on the second floor, crews had to exit the building and make entry at a different door and advance hose up a stairwell that was added to the structure during the reconfiguration.
Along with the challenges introduced due to the conversion of the single-family residence into a multi-family housing unit, the current state of the structure presented other challenges as interior is filled with heavy clutter of human waste and unwanted debris strewn about. Lastly, with the damaged structure, crews had to be quite cautious to avoid injury because of the state of the building with many holes in the floors, stairwells, and walls.
The fire is now extinguished, and the building will be turned over to the property owner shortly. No injuries reported. The fire is currently under investigation.
