Fire roared through a two-story rental house west of Brightwood sending one
of the five occupants to hospital with burn injuries to the back and head. A
second injury occurred when a bystander tripped, suffering a fractured arm.

At 2:17 a.m. on Oct. 21 Hoodland Fire District responded to a fully involved
structure fire in the 59000 block of Chalet Place near the Sandy River west of
Brightwood, according to Hoodland Fire Marshal Scott Kline.

“On first units arrival (at) the two-story house there was fire throughout the
structure and had spread to some vehicles,” Kline wrote in an email. “The
rental home had been occupied at the time of the fire, all occupants were able
to escape the fire, but there were no working smoke alarms in the house to
alert the occupants earlier.”

Hoodland Fire Chief Mic Eby told The Mountain Times that neighbors called
911 and by the time firefighters arrived, the top floor was already caving in.
There were three other storage structures consumed by the blaze.

“Some neighbors had their hoses out for the perimeters of their homes,” Eby
said. “But huge cedars went up and some neighbors had to be evacuated. We
foamed the cedars but we had a lot of trouble getting them out. The first
engines protected neighbor houses since the other house was gone.

“If we had been 10 minutes earlier, maybe we could have saved some of the
house.”

Forty-one personnel were at the scene, including two water tenders and four
engines from HFD, plus three more water tenders from out of district,
according to Eby.

The fire went to a second alarm and additional fire units came from Sandy Fire
District, Boring Fire District, Estacada Fire District and the City of Gresham,
Kline indicated in his email.

“Gresham covered our main station while we were at the scene,” Eby said.
“And our terrific volunteer support group made breakfast for us later that
morning.”

The fire was declared under control at 3:44 a.m., but firefighters remained on
the scene until 9:30 a.m.

Due to the complete destruction of the house the cause of fire was still under
investigation at press time.