PORTLAND, Ore. — One of the dangers and realities of living on the street in Portland can be out-of-control fire, simply sparked by trying to eat or stay warm. On Thursday, a man captured an example of this, as he recorded a fire under an overpass on Southeast Division Street in Portland while calling 9-1-1.
Portland Fire & Rescue crews responded to this — and another homeless campsite fire under the Steel Bridge — within thirty minutes, and said it's not an uncommon occurrence in the city. Luckily, no one was injured.
Jeffrey Cooper was at his music practice space on Division Street, when he heard a yell from outside of his window and looked up to see flames shooting up from one of the tents. He ran outside with a fire extinguisher and attempted to put out the flames, but was unable to do so.
"It was like a bonfire, the heat was singeing off my eyebrows and I couldn’t get very close to it," Cooper explained. "And the fire extinguisher wasn’t going to help."
He ran back inside and called dispatchers.
"It was just a little nail-biting at the moment, not knowing when they were going to show up or how bad it was going to go, you know?" Cooper said. "With cars parked right next to it, I wasn't sure if someone's car was going to explode or something."
Terry Foster with Portland Fire & Rescue said crews had some trouble initially getting to the scene, due to a train parked on the nearby tracks. After a slight delay, 10 firefighters responded and put out the fire. Foster said that the cause was unattended cooking, and no one was hurt.
Charred remnants of a makeshift home under the overpass serve as a reminder of just one of the dangers of living outside.
"For us that are fortunate enough to be in homes, there are codes on how you build a home to make it more resistant to fire," Foster explained, "Those things are not things that are thought about when people are building their encampment, so all we can do is try to educate people on how to say safe."