SEVEN FOREST GROVE RESIDENTS DISPLACED, AND FIRE CAPTAIN INJURED IN HOUSE FIRE

Just before 11:30 am on Thursday, August 9, 2012 Firefighters were called to a home at 2618 Main Street in Forest Grove for a reported bed room on fire. While en route fire crews were made aware that at least one person was still trapped inside the home, so when firefighters arrived they found smoke coming from the upstairs as they quickly went into rescue mode. Upon entering the first floor of the two story home they found four occupants on the first floor. Two of these men were trying to make it up the smoke filled stairway to try and extinguish the fire burning in the upstairs bedroom; one of the other occupants was trying to move a wheel chair bound women from the home. Firefighters split up and began to remove the wheel chair bound woman, while at the same time they had to physically remove the two men who were insistent on entering the dangerous smoke filled hallway. During this rescue and removal part of the firefighting effort, Forest Grove Fire Captain Joseph Smith (a 25 year veteran firefighter) suffered an apparent soft tissue injury to his leg while trying to tackle one of the men inside the smoke filled stairwell. Captain Smith continued on with his crew, extinguishing the fire burning in the bedroom and he was able to get out of the building under his own power and was later transported to Providence St. Vincent Hospital in Portland for further evaluation.

FGF&R Firefighters set up a ventilation fan to help remove the smoke from the burning home. 

 

After making sure all residents were safely out of the home, firefighters were finally able to gain access to the bedroom where the fire was located and quickly extinguished the fire that was burning in a bed. Smoke and heat damage was found throughout the first and second floors of the home, in a second floor hallway the heat was severe enough that it melted the smoke alarms that had initially notified the residents that the fire was burning; there were no fire sprinklers inside the home that would have otherwise contained this fire that ultimately caused around $20,000 in damages and made the home unable to live in at this time. Fire investigators have confirmed that the fire is a result of a discarded cigarette that ignited the bedding and spread to the rest of the room. Forest Grove Firefighters were assisted by firefighters from Hillsboro and Cornelius, which in total brought approximately 25 firefighters to the scene; the fire was deemed under control within 20 minutes of the first arriving crew. A total of six cats were also rescued by firefighters from the burning home.

A FGF&R Firefighter extinguishes the burning mattresses that were removed from the home

There are a number of fire safety messages to learn from this incident. First is that even though Oregon has a fire safe cigarette law, you absolutely still need to be safe while smoking. Hot ash and cigarette butts are still capable of igniting materials as was proved by this incident, and should be discarded in a non combustible container outside of the home. Second is that once you escape a fire that you absolutely never go back into a burning home for anyone or anything. Please let trained firefighters do their job and use their life saving skills and tools to their most effective abilities.

Forest Grove Firefighters tend to one of their own, Fire Captain Joe Smith that was injured while removing residents from the burning home on August 9. 2012

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