At 11:30 pm Wednesday evening, Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue was dispatched to a reported structure fire adjacent to the Big K Shopping Center off Nyberg Road in Tualatin. First arriving crews found heavy fire engulfing the first floor of the vacant and boarded-up historic Nyberg House located an an overgrown piece of land near the I-5 and Nyberg Road interchange.
Due to the heavy volume of fire throughout the first and portions of the second story, the threat of a roof collapse, and the longtime vacant status of the structure, firefighters fought the fire defensively from the exterior. Because the house is known to have some transient activity, firefighters quickly searched an adjacent building next to the main house, but found no evidence of anyone inside.
On scene, firefighters had to contend with energized power lines overhead. Once PGE arrived on scene and disconnected power to the overhead lines, TVF&R was able to utilize a truck with a 100 foot ladder to extinguish the remaining fire in the upper stories. As of 1:30 am, firefighters were continuing to battle hot spots throughout the structure. Approximately 25 firefighters responded to the incident.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation and a damage estimate is unknown at this time. The 102 year-old structure was once the home of the city’s second mayor, John Nyberg. Nyberg and his wife Ora built the home in 1905. The house along with 126 acres of land along the Tualatin River was home to the Nybergs and their 10 children. In 1915 the family moved the three-story house a short distance to the west to its current site when I-5 was built. John served as mayor of Tualatin from 1918 to 1944.