At 5:30 p.m. Saturday, October 3, Engine 20 arrived at an apartment in the 2800 block of Southeast Colt Drive and found light smoke on the second floor. The crew was preparing to attack the fire, according to the unit's own account of the response.
The update came directly from Portland Fire & Rescue
, which posted that “Engine 20 has arrived to an apartment at the 2800 block of SE Colt Drive. They found light smoke on the second floor of this apartment and are preparing to attack the fire.” The post, shared under the department's pdxfire handle, offered only a brief snapshot of crews on scene and did not detail how the fire started or how extensive the damage ultimately became.
A May 22, 2021 account from kxl.com described an apartment fire near Southeast 28th Avenue and Southeast Colt Drive, reporting that crews found a three-story building with heavy fire showing from all three floors. That account concerned the earlier fire, not the October 2026 Engine 20 response.
Details of the 2021 Fire at the Same Intersection
In the May 22, 2021 fire, crews requested a second alarm to bring additional resources to the scene. The same account states that firefighters got the fire under control before it spread to other structures, nobody was injured, and all occupants had escaped before crews arrived. Eight people were displaced from four units. The October 3, 2026 response caused no displacements.
Echoes of a 2021 Fire at the Same Portland Intersection
The Southeast 28th Avenue and Southeast Colt Drive area has seen this kind of damage before. Back on May 22, 2021, a fire tore through a three-story apartment building in the same area, with crews finding heavy smoke coming from all three floors, according to katu.com. That earlier fire also prompted a second-alarm response, damaged four units, and displaced eight people — though everyone escaped safely and no one was injured. The cause of that 2021 fire was unknown at the time it was reported.
In its 5:30 p.m. post Saturday, October 3, Portland Fire & Rescue said Engine 20 had found light smoke on the apartment's second floor and was preparing to attack the fire. No additional details on the fire's cause or the extent of the damage were reported.
