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3 escape NE Portland apartment fire likely started by candles

Arriving firefighters encountered big flames coming from the house divided into three units, according to Lt. Rich Chatman of the Portland Fire & Rescue Bureau.

PORTLAND, Ore. — A fire about 4 a.m. Wednesday left a woman with third-degree burns, a second with minor injuries and a third unhurt after they escaped an apartment fire near Northeast 26th Avenue and Clackamas Street.

Arriving firefighters encountered big flames coming from the house divided into three units, according to Lt. Rich Chatman of the Portland Fire & Rescue Bureau.

Chatman said candles on the second floor likely ignited curtains and flames spread to the third floor where the women were sleeping.

“The whole back porch was on fire,” said Lisa Beck, who lives two homes down the street.

Before she spotted the fire at her neighbor’s home, Beck was jarred awake when she heard a woman screaming.

“She was running up and down the street screaming for help,” Beck recalled.

The smell of smoke from this fire and a second at a recycling plant in Northwest Portland spread for several miles in the central Portland area.

A woman was awakened by the flames and alerted two other women. The woman with burns was taken to a hospital.

There were no working smoke detectors in the home, Chatman said.

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