Fire Prevention Tips
• Clear dead vegetation from your property.
• Keep the gutters clean of leaves and needles.
• Extinguish cigarette butts in noncombustible containers and never on the ground.
• Don’t burn landscape debris, which is illegal during the burn ban.
• Report suspicious activities to prevent potential arson.
Source: Vancouver Fire Marshal’s Office
Did You Know?
• All outdoor burning in Vancouver has been banned since July 8, including campfires and fires in outdoor fireplaces. Cooking outside in propane or charcoal barbecues is allowed but should be done with caution. For more information visit www.cityofvancouver.us/fire/page/fire-marshals-office-0.
Two brush fires that spread to three nearby homes on Wednesday caused an estimated $780,000 damage, the Vancouver Fire Marshal’s Office said. What sparked the fires remains under investigation.
With the fires reported about 90 minutes apart, firefighting resources were stretched thin as crews were working to quell one blaze when they were called to the second.
The first fire, reported at about 4:45 p.m., started in dense vegetation on a slope between East Evergreen Boulevard and Buena Vista Drive, said Lead Deputy Fire Marshal Chris Drone.
Fire Prevention Tips
• Clear dead vegetation from your property.
• Keep the gutters clean of leaves and needles.
• Extinguish cigarette butts in noncombustible containers and never on the ground.
• Don't burn landscape debris, which is illegal during the burn ban.
• Report suspicious activities to prevent potential arson.
Source: Vancouver Fire Marshal's Office
High winds and dry conditions caused the fire to spread rapidly uphill, burning the outside of a house at 5727 Buena Vista Drive and causing an estimated $30,000 structural damage, Drone said.
As firefighters were finishing up that fire, two more house fires were reported around 6:15 p.m. on the south side of state Highway 14 near the Lieser Road exit, about 1.5 miles away.
Drone said the fire started in the same conditions: A fire in vegetation between the houses, one at 8917 S.E. Porter Road and the other at 8912 S.E. Hillcrest Drive, was fueled by high winds and significantly damaged both homes. The damage is estimated at $750,000 to the structures and the belongings inside, Drone said.
All of the homeowners involved had insurance, he said.
While such complex back-to-back fires are uncommon, they’re something that the Vancouver Fire Department is practiced at dealing with.
“When it occurs, we have plans and processes in place that cover it,” said Deputy Fire Chief Dan Olson.
However, because the firefighters were already working at the first fire scene, it took them time to get to the second one. The fire department got help from Fire District 6, Portland Fire & Rescue and the state Department of Natural Resources. About 12 off-duty firefighters came in on overtime to help with the fires, Olson said.
Firefighters were concerned that while they were busy, medical calls would come in to 911, he said. Medical emergencies make up the majority of calls that Clark County firefighters handle. With resources tapped, the Vancouver Fire Department only responded to the most serious medical calls — life or death situations, basically. American Medical Response, the county’s ambulance provider, addressed other, less serious medical calls, Olson said.
Firefighters were challenged by the labor-intensive work. They were drenched in sweat and sitting on the bluff off of Buena Vista Drive as they sprayed down the burning hillside. A fire captain who got a serious cut had to undergo surgery, Olson said.
With wildland fires that ignite houses (or have the potential to do so) firefighters are concerned about how to prevent the fire from growing and causing more damage. On Southeast Hillcrest Drive, embers were being blown south by the wind and igniting vegetation, Olson said.
The moisture in vegetation keeps dropping, he said, which makes it easy tinder.
All three of the houses that burned are on a hillside overlooking the Columbia River and have a south-facing side that’s naturally going to be hotter.
“The fuels on southern aspect slopes are going to be drier,” Olson said.
Firefighters left the scene of the Buena Vista fire around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday. The house fires on Hillcrest were more intensive and got into the attics of each home, Olson said. Firefighters stayed through the night until about 7 a.m. Thursday, spraying the house with foam and putting out hot spots. They had to wait for the houses to cool down until the firefighters could go inside and tear down smoldering material.
Across the street
Barb Sparling, who lives across the street, saw the firefighters out at the house with flashlights during the night and put together some snacks for them.
She almost didn’t believe her son when he first told her the neighbors’ houses were on fire.
“I think people are pretty freaked out,” Sparling said. “You just felt that anything could happen any minute with the heat. … I never in my life have seen anything like that.”
There was smoke everywhere and her neighbors were running all over, trying to prevent the fire from getting to anyone else’s property.
Sparling lives on an acre of land with a well, so she’s been able to keep her yard green without worrying about the cost of water. Her next-door neighbor said she would remove her arbor vitae, which are known to burn easily and quickly.
Wednesday’s fire started in an arbor vitae that separates the two houses that were damaged.
“The neighborhood is devastated for these two families,” Sparling said. Both of the homes are not habitable. Sparling said her neighbor took in one of the families for the night.
“It really hits you hard when you see your neighbors struggling,” said Beth Biggs, who lives at the end of Hillcrest Drive. Her father, an insurance adjuster, had started driving to the house on Buena Vista when the fire started in their neighborhood and he turned around.
“My dad immediately turned on the sprinkler,” Biggs said.
But then, the power went out, so people started spraying down lawns with garden hoses. Biggs saw neighbors she had never seen before come help and make sure everyone was out of the burning houses.
“It was scary but definitely brought everybody together,” said the 19-year-old, who’s lived in the neighborhood her whole life. “You never think it’s going to happen where you live.”
The Biggs’ backyard is L-shaped, so it abuts the garage of 8912 Hillcrest Drive. The family worried about the fire spreading into their backyard and catching their house on fire.
The severe fire conditions are slated to continue this weekend, according to the National Weather Service in Portland, which predicts another hot spell tonight and Saturday across much of Southwest Washington and Northwest Oregon. The air will be drier than it was during past heat waves the area’s seen so far this summer, the weather service said.
A simple spark can cause a major fire, Drone said, so people have to pay close attention to all ignition sources. All outdoor burning is banned in Vancouver, but barbecues, cigarettes and matches can easily ignite dry vegetation.
Fire burned brush Thursday afternoon off of French Road, near the state Highway 14 exit to Ellsworth Road. One exit west of that, another hillside near Lieser Road was charred by fire.
“It’s the time of year — probably through the summer — where we actually have to look out for each other and make sure we’re not being careless with those kinds of things,” Olson said.
Large-scale fires aren’t limited to rural, wooded areas, Drone said. After all, as evident by the neighboring fires in the Old Evergreen Highway neighborhood, where homes are relatively close together, a fire at one house can easily spread to another under the right conditions.
