Portland Fire & Rescue: Portlanders Act Quickly To Help A Neighbor

Portland OR

21 April, 2022

4:35 PM

Description

Press release from Portland Fire & Rescue: April 18, 2022 At 9:00 pm yesterday crews were dispatched to a reported house fire near 174th and SE Washington St. Initial reports were that there was someone trapped inside. When Crews arrived they found a home with smoke showing at 17508 SE Washington St. There were no smoke detectors alarming when crews arrived. There was a resident out front that was able to give crews the information they needed to quickly find the victim. Gresham Fire's Engine 74 went interior for a fire attack while working alongside PF&R's Truck 7 who was doing an interior search for victims. The crews were able to quickly able to find the trapped resident and extricate them through a window at the side of the converted garage. After the fire was out, we are able to gather some facts from the other resident and neighbors. It came to light that a couple of neighbors, Richard Hilficker and Najee Newman, helped partially extinguish the fire prior to crews arriving. These two brothers were barbequing across the street when they heard the neighbor screaming about the fire in the house. They quickly responded and Richard took a garden hose into the building to put the fire out. He did find the fire but the hose did little to extinguish this fire. Richard asked his brother, who was with him, to find an extinguisher. He did quickly, and they were able to partially extinguish it, these selfless acts undoubtedly gave the resident a chance for survival as the fire was held back long enough to allow fire crews to arrive. This press release was produced by Portland Fire & Rescue. The views expressed here are the author's own.