Portland Fire & Rescue responded to a commercial fire at the former Barn Tavern on the border of the Kenton and Arbor Lodge Neighborhoods. This is a building that is familiar to Portland Fire as it is on our unsafe buildings list along with 8 fire responses to this address in the past 12 months. Each building on the unsafe list is marked with a reflective Red “U” on a white square above the main entrance. This indicates that the structure is potentially dangerous for interior firefighting activities due to the condition of the structure in question.
PFR was dispatched to a fire at this location at just after 7:30 PM. The first arriving crews indicated there was significant smoke pushing out at the eave line of the 50’x 50’ cinderblock walled structure upon arrival. The crew that performed a complete walk around the building communicated that there was fire showing through many of the boarded-up doors and windows with heavy smoke pushing out of cracks and spaces on each wall. This building stands alone on the corner and is not a threat to extend to any neighboring structure.
The first crew to access the roof indicated that there were flames already pushing through the center of the roof. The building was “softened” up by removing all the plywood coverings on the doors and windows and a cautious entry was made to attempt to find the seat of the fire and search as much of the building as possible. With the amount of fire showing, an additional truck and engine were requested to aid in providing the appropriate number of firefighters on scene to address the issue which at one point was close to 40 members of PF&R.
With the size of the fire growing and knowledge of the dangers posed with an interior fire attack, the commanding chief officer ordered the crews to withdraw and begin to set up for a defensive fire attack. With many elevated powerlines at this location, establishing multiple aerial master streams posed a challenge to the crews. There was only one location where a truck was able to establish an elevated master stream to flow water into the structure due to the powerlines and the heavy smoke pushing from a westerly wind directly into any personnel on the address side of the building. Flames grew so large at one point that the power lines were being impinged upon by the fire so there was a request for the power company to respond to cut power for safety of the responders and the community.
Water was being applied through all openings in the walls and through an aerial master stream for 90 minutes while fire load inside the building continued to burn. Crews were able to gain increased access by tearing down walls with tools and damaging the walls with the hydraulic pressure from the hoses. With improved access to the inside of the structure through these new access points, the fire was slowly being extinguished and the firefighters were slowly completely extinguishing the flames. The command officer reduced the number of firefighters on scene to 13 PFR members, 3 crews and a chief officer.
Power was restored 90 minutes and westbound traffic on Lombard was opened 2 ½ hours after the fire began.
