PORTLAND, Ore. — Crews with Portland Fire and Rescue (PF&R) responded Wednesday morning to a large fire at a warehouse for a small business that's been a fixture in the Humboldt neighborhood of North Portland for the past 25 years.
A column of black smoke and large flames could be seen around the area early Wednesday morning. Portland Fire crews battled the blaze, which started sometime after 6 a.m. in the area of North Killingsworth Court and Albina Avenue, for a couple hours. At around 9 a.m., PF&R reported that the fire response was "being pared down" and that crews would continue to apply water to the building throughout the day.
No injuries were reported, and PF&R said nobody was inside the building when the fire started. The fire is under investigation, PF&R said.
The structure that burned was a warehouse belonging to Royce's Prop Shop (RPS), a small business that's been in Portland for nearly three decades. Royce Mason, owner of RPS Events, said the company, which provides equipment and props for large-scale events, employs 20 people.
"We have a lot of great people that work here," Mason said, adding that "it might take a few days," but they plan to reopen. "We're very resilient, and with all the support in the community that we have, we'll be fine."
Mason said clients and friends have been checking in all morning.
"We have such wonderful clients. They've been calling me all morning, and it's just really sad," he said, choking up. "All of my friends have been checking in. We'll just keep going and keep going forward and take care of all the families that we support."
RPS Events has an Oregon State University event at the Hyatt on Wednesday and another event next weekend in Seattle. "Thank God we loaded some of these trucks early, and we'll be ready," Mason said. He said they have another warehouse nearby that wasn't impacted and that warehouse contains a lot more equipment.
The warehouse that burned Wednesday morning was full of items like lighting, trusses, drapery, lumber and office equipment, Mason said.
Industry colleagues set up a gofundme fundraising page to help Mason and RPS Events recover from the fire.
According to Portland Fire, the manager of the building left between 6:30 and 7 p.m. Tuesday night and everything was fine. The alarm was set, and it can only be set if all the doors are shut.
The cause of the fire at this time is unknown. Early Wednesday morning, PF&R spokesperson Rick Graves said fire crews used digital mapping to navigate the inside of the building and find the largest source of fire. It appears to have started in an "elevated mezzanine" level of the building, Graves said.
Graves said the building is a cinderblock structure — "imagine the largest pizza oven you've seen," he said. Crews initially entered the building to fight the fire but were pulled out after about 10 minutes due to worries about the fire danger and the possibility of the building collapsing.
North Albina Avenue was closed just south of North Killingsworth Court and Graves said he expected it to remain closed for several hours. TriMet also re-routed Line 4 due to the fire, according to KGW traffic reporter Chris McGinness.
Students at nearby Jefferson High School were also released early from classes at 1 p.m. on Wednesday due to the smoke affecting the air quality of the neighborhood and school building, a news release said.
Portland Fire first reported that crews were responding to the fire at around 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday. At around 7:30 a.m., PF&R said fire conditions were improving, and shortly after 9 a.m., they said some firefighters had been pulled off the fire, but crews would continue to apply water to the building Wednesday. At one point, there were nearly 100 PF&R members on site, PF&R said.
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