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2 women killed in overnight fire at Northeast Portland church

Fire units were called to Northeast 62nd Avenue near Sandy Boulevard, but had to attack the fire from the outside because part of the church collapsed.

PORTLAND, Oregon — Two people were reported to have died early Sunday morning in a 3-alarm fire at a northeast Portland church. Portland Fire & Rescue tweeted at around 4:30 a.m. that crews were responding to a fire in the 2800 block of Northeast 62nd Avenue, near the intersection with Sandy Boulevard, that started in a church and spread to an adjacent home.

The incident was reported by residents next door to the church, who said their home had caught on fire as well. About 10 minutes after the initial post, PF&R tweeted that the home residents had been safely evacuated and the fire in the home was out, but part of the church had collapsed and fire crews had to pull back from the structure.

Fire officials at the scene later confirmed that two people died in the fire. Later Sunday, Portland Fire reported that the victims were two women in their mid-70s. PF&R Deputy Chief Chris Barney said "indications are [the two women] were supposed to be there. They were not people who made an unwanted entry."

PF&R said the fire started in the gym of the church, but it did not spread to the sanctuary. Crews tried to get into the gym area to evacuate people, fire officials said, but that portion of the building partially collapsed as they were trying to get inside, forcing them to pull back and attack the fire from outside.

At around 6 a.m., PF&R tweeted that the fire was mostly out and crews were mopping up hot spots, and fire investigators had arrived at the scene to begin determining the cause of the fire. In a news release sent shortly before noon Sunday, PF&R said it will take investigators "some time" to determine the cause of the fire because of the stability of the structure.

Barney said Sunday morning that the weather was a significant factor, with firefighters battling "hose line freezing" the past two days.

"Operating around the scene now if very dangerous as people are sliding and falling and wading through water and standing water," he said." 

Credit: Alma McCarty, KGW

This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.

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