GRESHAM, Ore. — Crews extinguished a fire that engulfed an auto wrecking shop in Gresham on Tuesday morning.
The fire started around 9:40 a.m., according to Gresham Fire Lt. Shane Kooch. When firefighters arrived, they found the building, located at 2103 SE 190th Ave., "fully involved." Crews went into defensive mode and called for more resources.
Kooch said access to the building was difficult.
"Because of the nature of the building, it was surrounded by cars and tires, so getting hose lines to the backside was difficult," Kooch said. "But we were mostly able to keep it contained to the building."
Kooch said initial reports indicated a tank was on fire inside the building and a car up on jacks was draining fuel, but he said the cause of the fire is still under investigation.
By 11:30 a.m., firefighters from the Gresham and Portland fire departments were in mop-up phase and starting to let crews leave.
Earlier Tuesday, Gresham Fire tweeted that crews had to deal with oil spills from the building in addition to the fire.
"All the runoff is being contained to the property," Kooch said. "Gresham Environmental Services and DEQ have been contacted, and I believe they're en route to assess that aspect of it. ... But I don't believe there was any significant negative environmental impact."
Fire officials advised the public to stay away from the area of Southeast 190th Avenue and Division Street. Kooch said traffic in the area would continue to be impacted until early Tuesday afternoon.