July 22, 2024 10:40

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PF&R responds to greater alarm fire on Ross Island

On Saturday afternoon, Portland Fire & Rescue responded to a reported large vegetation fire on Ross Island. This fire grew in intensity and size where a 3rd alarm fire response was requested to be certain there was significant resources available to address the fire. Crews worked until nightfall and then returned the following day after daybreak to finish the extinguishment process. There was a member from PF&R that was sent home due to heat exhaustion after an on scene medical evaluation. This member has since been medically evaluated again and has recovered and will return to work as scheduled. The cause of this fire is currently under investigation.

The logistics of fighting a mixed fuel land fire on an island takes quite of bit of work and creativity. PF&R Marine Section was actively shuttling firefighters and equipment from Station 21 located just north of the Hawthorne Bridge to the scene of the fire. In addition to shuttling tools and crew members, the fireboats were our only pumping resource, pulling water from the river and pumping up to the crews on land to use in addressing the flames. The items burning on the island were a mixture of dry vegetation, debris and trash associated with Ross Island Sand and Gravel, along with some older outbuildings also associated with the same business.

Once the crews were on the island and a water system was set up, PF&R crews worked a solid 6 hours until nightfall arrived. With the fire having been reduced significantly and nearly completely extinguished along with communication with Ross Island Sand and Gravel that none of their property had any business value, a decision was made to pull all crews off the island overnight and return the following day to address any remaining fire. The conditions of the terrain and lack of any natural light led to a safety decision to pull the crews and return the next day. PF&R worked an additional 2 hours yesterday to finish up the extinguishment process. The stations that responded are now locating, cleaning, and returning all tools used in this incident back to their respective rigs so they can be used again when responding to another wild land fire. We are early in the season and will continue to be pulling out our specific wild land fire suppression gear quite often over the next few months.

This was the second greater alarm land fire in a week where our marine program was heavily involved in the suppression efforts. The fireboats provided significant amounts of water in both these greater alarm fires and the rescue boats were used as shuttles for the Ross Island incident. Unlike the greater alarm fire at Radius Recycling, where the fireboats were pumping to an engine that could adjust the water pressure according to the down stream needs at the nozzle, the pump operator of the fireboat not only had to continuously monitor the water intake from the river, but also was required to adjust the water pressures so those on the end of the hand lines had the proper amount of water and water pressure to safely address the task at hand. The success of this effort is the result of many hours of planning and training on the part of all members within PF&R. Not only those line firefighters, but all involved in the design and maintenance of the vessels, those that plan the interactive training sessions of the land based and marine based programs, and those that creatively look at a tool and find additional benefits to put to use down the road.

The vessels within the Marine Fleet are essential tools that are instrumental in our operations many times throughout the year. The many generations of vessel are maintained at a high level of operation by the Portland Fire Logistics Section and the Emergency Vehicle Technicians on staff. In the case of the Radius Recycling fire, there were 3 generations of boat in operation. One of these vessels, The David Campbell, is nearly 100 years old and has seen her fair share of dock and marina fires, is still providing needed assistance when needed. Portland Fire used both the Rescue Boats, that are designed primarily for quick maneuvering to perform a river rescue, to shuttle crews and equipment to the island, and the newest generation of fireboat to pump the water to the crews. In both greater alarm fires, our crews working the land side of these marine based fires would have had a significant extension of the time involved in addressing both these emergencies had the marine program not been there to provide increased water availability and other required tasks. Without the continued efforts of those firefighters within the Marine Program along with the schedule and emergency repairs performed by the EVT's, the successes of our suppression in and around the waterways, like a large fire on Ross Island, would not be possible.

Portland Fire would like to thank the cooperation received from Ross Island Sand and Gravel along with the assistance of the dispatch center at BOEC while addressing this large extended operation on Ross Island.

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