Office Building Destroyed In Early Morning Fire

Portland, Ore. — Portland Fire & Rescue responded to a commercial fire on SW Barbur in the West Portland Park Neighborhood around 3:30 AM. The first engine on the scene reported heavy fire venting through the roof and connected to a nearby fire hydrant for suppression activities. Another engine arrived and provided more information about the building, suggesting a second alarm due to the extensive fire on the roof of the office building.

The incident commander requested a second alarm from the dispatch center and directed crews to set up for a defensive fire operation, using large diameter hose lines and aerial master streams to suppress the fire from the outside. Firefighters did not enter the 2-story, 30′ wide, and 100′ long building due to the significant risk involved.

Due to the distance between the building and the nearest fire hydrants, multiple engines used their connecting hoses and lay-in lines, requiring additional hose from other engines to cover the distance from various directions. This resulted in thousands of feet of large diameter hose being used to supply sufficient water for the aerial master streams. Fire engines were stationed at each active hydrant to push water up the hill through the hoses, and one engine was attached to the truck to provide the necessary pressure for water flow.

The fire occurred near the border of Portland, involving assistance from Lake Oswego Fire and Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue. These departments used their own style of hose, along with the 3″ diameter hose lines from Portland Fire & Rescue crews. Although 5″ diameter hose was connected to a hydrant further from the fire, it was later determined not to be needed and was reloaded onto the engines.

After 75 minutes of continuous water flow, the fire was almost completely extinguished, with the building’s roof mostly burned off. Firefighters then entered the building with hand lines to locate and extinguish any remaining fire. A fire watch strategy was implemented to continue water flow on the building while investigators assessed the cause. No injuries were reported.