An early morning blaze that erupted in Southwest Portland's Multnomah Village has left a duplex in ruins. OregonLive reports that Portland Fire & Rescue was dispatched to the location around 3 a.m., where they discovered flames breaching the roof of the structure. The severity of the fire prompted commanding officers to issue a second alarm, calling in additional firefighting resources.
Despite an aggressive response from fire crews, the home was nevertheless destroyed. There was one resident inside the duplex at the time of the incident; firefighters were able to safely extract them with no injuries reported. The efforts to subdue the flames were swift, and as indicated by KOIN, the fire was extinguished in under an hour. However, the cause of the fire is still being investigated by authorities.
The community response to the fire highlights the close-knit nature of the Multnomah Village neighborhood. "If somebody has a problem, medical or otherwise, we rally the troops. If somebody needs dinners made or looked after, we do that for our neighbors," a local resident named Charles told KGW during an interview.
Fire officials have made known that examining the fire's aftermath will be a prolonged endeavor. "Due to the size of the structure, the location and the conditions of the building itself, for their safety, it's going to be a very slow process to comb through the remains of the fire," a representative from the firefighting team, Graves, explained, as per KGW. As the investigation into the cause of the blaze continues, the neighborhood is coming together to support those affected by the disaster, demonstrating the resilience and connectedness characteristic of Multnomah Village.
