Morning fire burns nine Mt. Scott-Arleta apartments

Near dawn on Saturday morning, August 3rd, many residents of “The Arleta” apartment complex, at 5224 S.E. 72nd Avenue near Mitchell Street, suddenly smelled smoke – and some saw flames.

Many frantic calls to the 9-1-1 Center sent multiple Portland Fire & Rescue (PF&R) crews their way. Lents Station 11’s Engine and Rescue Companies arrived first, at 7:07 a.m.

“Responding crews communicated to dispatchers that they saw a smoke column – a ‘header’ – on their way to the location,” PF&R Public Information Officer Rick Graves told THE BEE.

Woodstock Fire Station 25’s Ladder Truck Company pulled up just after responders from the Lents Station; their crew planted their truck in the center of S.E. 72nd Avenue, and extended their aerial ladder to allow firefighters could access the roof.

As they arrived, crews saw an attic fire with heavy dark smoke pushing from the eaves and vents within the structure. The Commander directed the first-arriving engine to begin an “offensive fire attack”, taking hose lines to the interior of the building to extinguish the fire.

“The dispatchers told crews that there might possibly be a trapped victim in an identified apartment, which added the need for an ambulance to the fire call, in the event of injuries,” Graves continued. “Firefighters searched the affected structure thoroughly and fully, but no victims were located inside the building.”

“Fire was present on both levels of the garden-style apartment complex, with the fire growing in the second level independent apartments,” said Graves.

With each apartment having separate its own entrance – on the ground level and on the second level – firefighters needed to put out the fire in each unit individually, and then drag the hose out and on to the next one.

A “second alarm” was quickly dispatched to bring in more firefighters to move the hose in and out of each individual living space, and to work on opening the roof to access the fire in the attic.

“Crews from PF&R and Clackamas County District #1 were able to control this fire, which affected nine of the twelve apartments in the building, in about 20 minutes – with no reported injuries to responders or occupants,” Graves reported.

And what stopped the fire from burning down the entire building? “A concrete fire wall, extending from the ground through the roof, did its job – keeping the fire from spreading to the attached set of apartments to the east,” Graves responded.

Because of the fire, fifteen residents were displaced. The fire is under investigation, with no cause yet determined.