Crews battle 2-alarm blaze at four-story home in West Portland

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) -- A two-alarm fire in a four-story house in the Sylvan-Highlands neighborhood prompted response from Portland fire crews Saturday morning.

Just before 7:30 a.m., firefighters responded to the 200 block of Northwest MacLeay Boulevard on reports of a three-story house on fire with potential residents trapped inside.

On arrival, they found the house with heavy flames from the front side, mostly showing from the upper floors. Because the house was on a steep bank, crews had to come from the back side of the house to attack the fire with water from nearby hydrants.

After finding the residents had already gotten out of the home safely, the fire was upgraded to second-alarm when the flames threatened another house next door.

During the process of extinguishing the fire, one firefighter was walking up the stairs to check the home next door and a downed high voltage power line struck his helmet, according to PF&R Lt. Terry Foster.

"Luckily, he was wearing his helmet and nobody was injured, he said. "But these are the things that we look out for when we approach these fires. This was one of those where he's walking literally into the sunrise, so he was unable to see this small wire hanging over his head."

Other than this instance, there were no injuries reported and the blaze was successfully put out.

Lt. Foster added that, while they don't yet know the cause of the fire, they believe it started on the second floor of the home.