Crews are working to assess the structural integrity of a 42-unit apartment complex that burned in downtown Portland Tuesday.
Rick Graves with Portland Fire & Rescue points out some of the fire damage to the May apartment building on May 17, 2023, in Portland, Ore.
Kristian Foden-Vencil / OPB
Portland Fire & Rescue spokesperson Rick Graves said the third and fourth stories of The May apartments were gutted.
“And the first and second floors are going to have significant water damage,” he said. “If it’s deemed unsafe, people may not be able to enter and get their items.”
The fire started at about 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at The May apartments near Southwest 14th Avenue and Taylor Street. Smoke from the four-alarm blaze in the Goose Hollow area was visible across the Willamette River and much of the city. More than a half-dozen large hoses and several smaller hoses were trained on the building for hours as residents scrambled to safety.
Graves said the basement has been essentially turned into a swimming pool. Oil tanks used for the building’s furnace system are leaking. The Portland Bureau of Environmental Services is looking into possible runoff into the stormwater system.
During a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Portland Fire & Rescue officials said they were considering sending an investigator through one of the building’s windows where they believe the fire may have started. The May apartments had a number of known electrical issues and code violations that appear to have gone unaddressed.
Structural engineers from the city are also on-site to review the safety of the building and neighboring structures. Fire officials on Wednesday said they are “very concerned” the building may collapse. Residents of two nearby apartment complexes have been allowed to briefly enter their apartment units, one by one, for up to five minutes to collect personal documents.
The city said the owner of the damaged apartment building will need to hire an engineer to complete a full structural review and decide whether it should be repaired or demolished.
The Red Cross has organized a shelter at the University of Portland for the scores of displaced residents. An aid group called Team Farmer arrived on the scene Tuesday and provided 45 pizzas.
The May apartment building, in the Goose Hollow area of Portland, was consumed in a four-alarm blaze on May 16, 2023.
Kristian Foden-Vencil / OPB
Now that the smoke has cleared, it’s evident the unreinforced brick walls of the complex are bulging slightly.
“If the city engineer deems this a structure that is a danger, there will be an accelerated course put on it,” Graves said. “It’s usually fast-tracked on the demolition permit.”
The building’s fire alarm system was working during the fire, but many residents had grown weary of frequent false alarms and were ignoring it. So fire crews had to go floor by floor, alerting residents to exit the building immediately.
The fire spread aggressively, with explosive flashovers blowing windows out and sending shards of glass to the other side of a four-lane street. Graves said one firefighter was cut on his forehead.
“He lightly rubbed his forehead, looked at it, grunted, put his helmet back on, grabbed three saws at once and walked away,” Graves said. “He’s a monster.”
Another firefighter was sent to the hospital with an elevated blood pressure and is expected to be OK.
Portland Fire Chief Sara Boone said more than 80 firefighters responded to the scene, with help from dozens of others providing mutual emergency aid.
“I want to recognize and acknowledge the efforts and heroism displayed by the men and women of Portland Fire under the most hazardous of conditions,” Boone said.