PORTLAND, Ore. — An electrical substation fire in the Mt. Tabor neighborhood prompted street closures and power outages for thousands of residents Friday night, according to Portland Fire & Rescue.
On Saturday morning at least 150 Portland General Electric customers were still without power. By Saturday afternoon power was restored to all, according to PGE.
Shortly after 9 p.m. on Friday, fire crews were dispatched on a report of a transformer problem near the intersection of Northeast 60th Avenue and Stark Street, officials said.
PF&R Engine 19 station arrived on scene to find heavy fire in and around the substation.
Due to the dangerous nature of fighting an electrical based fire, PF&R told KGW they "will take a very slow and cautious approach with this type of electrical fire."
Streets nearby were closed to traffic.
A PGE representative advised PF&R to let the fire burn until more resources were available, according to a news release.
PF&R crews were able to reduce the bulk of the remaining fire and extinguish the rest with chemical extinguishers. PGE line operators were also involved in assisting the response by moving into the substation and assessing the scene with PF&R members.
Fire remained inside the substation enclosure and no surrounding structures were affected. There were no reported injuries.
The fire led to at least 3,000 residents to lose their power in the neighborhood, according to PGE. A cause for the explosion has still yet to be determined.
On Saturday, several neighbors stopped by to see the damage caused by the fire at the substation.
"I thought that it would be a lot worse because of the size of the fireball," said Brian Ruiz, "I’m like — that’s all that blew up?"
Compared with the damage, he said the explosion and fire were frightening.
"We heard a noise [outside the apartment], and we turned around, and a giant fireball — it kind of looked like a Michael Bay movie — was just expanding. For a moment we were like, do we have to leave our house? Because it started ballooning and then it went back in, and our power immediately went out."
Additional power outages across southeast Portland were reported.
Pacific Power reported nearly 8,000 customers without power in both southeast and northeast parts of Portland.
Widespread power outages were a result of heavy rain and gusty winds from a strong atmospheric river moving through the Pacific Northwest.