PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Firefighters responding to a call about a gas leak in Portland, Oregon, saved lives when they ordered evacuations and pulled a fire alarm to warn holdouts just minutes before a powerful explosion leveled a building in a popular shopping district, officials said.
The blast Wednesday morning injured eight people and ignited a fire that sent a plume of smoke over the city. Three firefighters, two police officers and three civilians were hurt.
One of the firefighters underwent hours of surgery for a broken leg, Portland Fire Chief Mike Myers told reporters. None of the injuries appeared to be life-threatening.
Firefighters and police helped avert a catastrophe by quickly clearing the area before the blast, city officials said.
“There are a lot of people alive” who might not be “but for the excellent work by our first responders,” Mayor Charlie Hales said.
In particular, the young fire lieutenant with the badly broken leg made several critical decisions that likely saved lives, the fire chief said.
Lt. Peter St. John positioned the fire trucks in such a way that they were out of the blast zone and then ran into the building to pull fire alarms when firefighters realized everyone had not evacuated, Myers said.
St. John and other firefighters also decided to don protective equipment before the blast because something “just didn’t feel right,” the fire chief said.
“That man saved the lives of a lot of people today and a lot of firefighters,” Myers said. “He had very good instincts today. He showed good judgment.”
The blast reduced to rubble a building that housed a bagel shop and a beauty salon in the popular NW 23rd Street shopping district. Its smoldering roof was splayed across the road.
The walls and windows of a nearby building were blown out, debris was everywhere and businesses three blocks away reported that their doors flew open from the force of the blast.
Firefighters swarmed the scene and dumped water from ladder trucks onto the smoking wreckage. Dozens of business owners and residents were still barred from the area as night fell Wednesday.
NW Natural released a timeline saying the explosion occurred at 9:38 a.m., when many businesses were still closed.
Portland’s NW 23rd Street – nicknamed “Trendy Third” – is packed with boutiques, bars and restaurants. Many are on street level with pricey apartments on the upper levels and a day care facility in the vicinity.
The utility said it got a call at 8:55 a.m. saying a construction crew had hit a gas line. Authorities and utility workers responded in 15 minutes and evacuated the building, NW Natural CEO David Anderson said at a news conference.
People in the neighborhood reported smelling gas as they were evacuated and later felt the explosion.
The utility has not determined what caused the gas to ignite, Anderson said. It was an extremely rare event that required a certain amount of ambient gas, an enclosed space and an ignition source, he said.
An employee at a nearby kitchen accessories store said he was in the washroom when he felt a huge explosion and emerged to find thick smoke and haze. Scott Bergler said 15 windows in the first-floor store were blown out.
As he evacuated the Kitchen Kaboodle shop, Bergler saw a firefighter on the ground who had been knocked flat by the blast.
“He was obviously in shock and crawling and having a hard time standing up,” said Bergler, who was shaken by the ordeal as he gathered with co-workers in a parking lot.
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