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Scramble to evacuate residents in Ore. assisted living facility fire

One resident was pulled from a burning bed as sprinklers contained flames in the Potland facility

By Elliot Njus, Mark Graves
oregonlive.com

PORTLAND, Ore. — A fire broke out at a Portland assisted living facility in Northeast Portland on Sunday, leaving one person with life-threatening burns and setting off a scramble to evacuate dozens of residents.

Portland Fire & Rescue spokesperson Rick Graves said firefighters who responded just before 2:30 p.m. found a bed engulfed in flames in a room at the facility — located in the 800 block of Northeast 122nd Avenue — and pulled a person from the burning mattress.

Graves said that person was taken by ambulance to a hospital with significant burns.

“They were in the middle of the source of the fire,” Graves said.

The facility’s fire sprinklers helped contain the blaze to the single room, and all other residents were evacuated safely, Graves said.

More than 60 firefighters from Portland and Gresham, and more than two dozen fire trucks and ambulances, responded to aid in the evacuation.

Graves said there were about 90 residences in the facility. Many of the occupants had limited mobility — some no mobility, he said — and had to be carried out of the building. The facility includes a memory care unit, adding to the urgency of a thorough search.

Fire investigators were inspecting the room where the fire began and interviewing staff to try to determine what caused the fire.

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