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As unsanctioned encampments spread across the city during the pandemic, fires followed. As WW previously reported, such blazes accounted for nearly half the fires in Portland (“Camp Fires Everywhere,” Nov. 2, 2022).
A spreadsheet obtained by WW sheds some light on which neighborhoods were hit the hardest. It also hints at the tensions roiling within Portland Fire & Rescue, which increasingly coordinates the city’s response to unhoused campers in crisis.
In July 2021, the Portland City Council approved a proposal by the city fire marshal to sweep the city’s most dangerous encampments—those with multiple instances of “illegal burning” or “aggressive behavior.”
Soon after, the fire bureau began keeping a list of the camps it had referred to the Street Services Coordination Center for removal. As of last month, it contained 87 camps. Many have been referred multiple times, some as many as a dozen, according to notations on the document.
In emails obtained by WW, firefighters expressed frustration with the system. “Repopulation of camps and slow or no abatement of problematic camps continues to be an issue,” wrote Lt. Laurent Picard, who manages the referral process for the fire bureau, in a February email to Fire Marshal Kari Schimel.
Mila Mimica, spokeswoman for the coordination center, which oversees campsite sweeps, says it was meeting with the fire bureau on a “regular basis to discuss problematic encampments.” She added: “We do our best to address these sites case by case. We appreciate their collaboration.”
The document describes various hazards, including smoke in a neighboring hospital’s ventilation system, a “bootleg circuit box on a lamp post,” and a camper threatening to “slice up” approaching firefighters.
In some instances, firefighters called on the Portland Police Bureau for help. “There are some camps where [fire] officers are hesitant to enter camps without PPB,” Lt. Picard wrote. “Of course, with PPB resources stretched thin, this is usually not possible every time it would be advisable for safety.”
An analysis by WW finds the Buckman neighborhood has been the most affected, with 11 camps on the list. That’s not surprising, given that the neighborhood includes swaths of the Central Eastside where the size and scale of camps drew the ire of local business owners last winter.
Some of those camps, the list notes, are particularly dangerous. A fire at one, under the Morrison Bridge, resulted in “a burn victim from a tent fire” last month, according to a notation on the document. Firefighters responded to another, near Southeast Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., six times within a single week in May 2022. And on Valentine’s Day, six puppies were killed in an encampment fire nearby, as WW previously reported (“Washout,” April 12).
Complaints from neighboring businesses spurred Mayor Ted Wheeler to begin aggressively sweeping encampments in the area, part of a “90-day reset” that began earlier this year—and City Commissioner Rene Gonzalez’s order banning Portland Street Response, the mental health response team tucked within the fire bureau, from distributing tents.