A fierce blaze in Northeast Portland escalated into an explosive situation for firefighters when ammunition inside a burning home began to discharge. Fire crews responded to the two-alarm fire on Northeast 136th Avenue just south of Glisan Street shortly before 8 p.m. Thursday, flames aggressively moved from the basement to the second floor.

The fire, difficult to tame from the outset, grew more hazardous as it reached a large cache of ammunition. "There's significant amount of ammunition in the house, storage in the attic space as well as reported to be a thousand pounds of ammunition stored in the garage, so with the significant amount of fire and the reality that there are explosives on the inside, we pulled our crews out, established a perimeter," Portland Fire & Rescue spokesperson Rick Graves told KATU. Firefighters were forced to back off and adopt a defensive position as the ammunition set off.

According to KOIN 6 News, the intense heat inside the garage and items filling the space made an interior attack challenging. A reported explosion within the garage prompted firefighters to evacuate the home and fight the flames from outside.

Additional resources were called to the scene as a second alarm was triggered, with crews managing to bring the flames under control just over an hour after their arrival. In an attempt to fully extinguish the fire, another engine team was to quickly attach their line to a separate hydrant to aid in the battle against the inferno.

One resident afflicted by smoke inhalation was transported to the hospital for treatment. Concern lingered for two unaccounted pets as fire crews tamed the lingering flames and smoke. As the aftermath settled, the cause of the fire remained under investigation, with no immediate word on the fate of the pets, as reported by KPTV.