PF&R Hosts Annual Ceremony Of Honor (Photo) -05/21/25

PF&R Hosts Annual Ceremony of Honor

Portland Fire & Rescue hosted its annual Ceremony of Honor tonight at the Airport Sheraton, in which members of PF&R, along with members of PBOT, PPB, PP&R and the general public, were recognized for going above and beyond the call of duty during emergency incidents over the past year.

Along with recognizing individuals for their efforts on emergency incidents, members of PF&R were recognized in 4 different categories with the annual “Of the Year” awards. Firefighter of the Year was awarded to FF Travis Chipman; the Thomas Gavin Safe Driver of the Year was awarded to FF Tim Spring; Medical Provider of the Year was awarded to FFE Micah Fullerton; and Non-Sworn PF&R Member of the Year was awarded to Jake Sigler.

Attached are photos of these sworn members, along with a link to the program which allows you to view all the awards that were presented. The link to the program and certificates associated with all the award language can be found here - 2025 Ceremony of Honor Awards | Portland.gov. (www.portland.gov/fire/2025-coh-awards)

A few examples of these awards: Members of the Parks and Police Bureaus were recognized for their efforts on emergency scenes; A member of PBOT was recognized for ensuring a house that was on fire was safely evacuated prior our arrival; Members of the public were recognized for taking great risks to ensure lives were saved at several emergency incidents; and an off-duty PF&R member was recognized for his life-saving efforts at a fire while “off the clock.”

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Fraudulent Letters Sent To Portland Residents Regarding Illegal Burning (Photo) -05/13/25

Fraudulent Letters Sent to Portland Residents Regarding Illegal Burning

It has been brought to the attention of Portland Fire & Rescue that letters are being mailed to residents within the City of Portland accusing residents of illegal burning on their properties. The letters state that these illegal burning violations could lead to fines of $1500, along with the claim that failure to act may lead to the “involuntary” forfeiture of properties. PF&R wants the community to know that these letters are not official communications from PF&R and have not been sent from our offices.

These letters have the PF&R logo centered at the top of the page rather than the official letterhead of Portland Fire & Rescue. This logo is also present on the envelope used in these mailings in the return address area of the envelope. Along with the use of the logo in place of the official PF&R letterhead, there are a few other errors in these letters. First, the ordinance referenced within the body of the letter addresses tree removal and not illegal burning; second, this same ordinance is cited in reference to the potential of property forfeiture; third, the signature on the letters is not Interim Chief AJ Jackson’s signature; and lastly, PF&R does not have an 800 number used for our communications. The 800 number in the letter directs recipients to an adult content phone line.

Portland Fire & Rescue has not sent out these letters claiming you must contact a toll-free phone number or pay a fee that must be mailed to PF&R, nor has PF&R threatened any property owners with “involuntary” property forfeiture. PF&R would like to remind Portlanders to never provide any financial information over the phone or by mail to an unknown or unverified source.

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PF&R Receives Cold Cut Cobra, A Specialized Tool To Address EV Battery Compartment Fires (Photo) -05/08/25

PF&R receives Cold Cut Cobra, a specialized tool to address EV battery compartment fires

With many technological advancements introduced to society come new response concerns for the fire service that eventually lead to the development of new tools used to mitigate an emergency. With the increasing prevalence of electric vehicles (EV), there is an increased concern about Lithium-Ion battery fires in our community. These EV battery compartment fires pose a significant threat to responders with the presence of toxins in the smoke and to the environment due to toxin-laden water runoff. The Cold Cut Cobra Water Lance is a new tool that is designed to address this new category of emergency.

Lithium-Ion battery fires require a much larger volume of water to extinguish than other types of fires; they have high levels of toxins captured in the water runoff; and they have aerosolized particulates in the smoke that can be, at minimum, a respiratory irritant, but can also lead to respiratory distress and even respiratory arrest in some cases. Using the Cold Cut Cobra reduces the amount of water used and can eliminate the release of aerosolized toxins.

Lithium-Ion batteries can enter a state of thermal runaway, in which the temperature of the batteries increases to the point of ignition, either from impact to the batteries or an electrical short. Fire can then extend from battery to battery throughout the steel encased battery compartment of the EV. With the protective steel casing limiting access to the battery compartment, applying water onto the batteries to cool and extinguish a fire is difficult. Water application to the exterior of the compartment may cool the compartment enough to reduce the flames temporarily, but this will rarely extinguish the fire completely, as lithium-ion batteries in thermal runaway tend to continue to heat up and often reignite.

With EV becoming so prevalent in our country, this is a national issue and the response model across the country varies widely when addressing EV fires. Some departments are altering their response protocols to refrain from using water and thus allowing the fire to completely consume the batteries. This results in faster fire extinguishment than if water is applied to the battery compartment but can lead to the release of a large toxic plume into the air which can adversely affect the safety of people downwind. Other departments are extinguishing these fires using traditional firefighting techniques, which results in thousands of gallons of toxin-laden water on the roadway that can enter the watershed through drains or permeate the soil adjacent to the roadway. The Cold Cut Cobra is designed to extinguish the fire and trap the toxins in the battery compartment with very little water and a significant reduction in smoke production, reducing the negative environmental and safety impacts of an EV fire.

The Cold Cut Cobra has a self-contained water tank with a motor used to power a high-pressure water pump, with the additional ability to mix in a nontoxic, environmentally safe iron ore aggregate used to penetrate into solid materials such as metal and concrete, using a hole of just 1/8” in diameter, roughly the size of a small ball bearing. The water is delivered through a nozzle with multiple triggers which control water flow and the aggregate mixture. The tool is designed to pierce through the metal protective battery compartment cover using the aggregate-water mix. Once the hole is made, the iron ore is removed from the stream and the water stream floods the compartment, quickly extinguishing the fire and eliminating a possibility of a rekindle, as the water stops the propagation of the thermal runaway. There is also very little concern of water run off using this tool, as almost all the water is trapped in the battery compartment.

The Cold Cut Cobra will be housed on Heavy Squad 24, located in the Overlook Neighborhood, which will provide excellent access to I5 North and Southbound. This apparatus responds to all high-rise fire incidents or fires in buildings greater than 7 stories in height. Keeping this tool on Heavy Squad 24 will enable easy deployment to Portland streets for EV battery fires and will ensure this tool will be available at any large structure fires that have lithium-ion battery banks used for power sources and storage.

PF&R was fortunate to receive funding from the City’s Bureau of Fleet and Facilities (BFF) to purchase a Cold Cut Cobra Water Lance that will use significantly less water than the traditional techniques and mitigate battery compartment fires in a short period of time, reducing respiratory exposures and reducing if not eliminating the toxic runoff from the water used in extinguishment. BFF’s CityFleet received a grant from the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund (PCEF) to support transitioning the City’s fleet to battery-electric vehicles and equipment, including charging infrastructure, vehicle technician training, and related maintenance and emergency response tools such as the Cold Cut Cobra Water Lance  Electrification of the City’s fleet supports the City’s 2022-2025 Climate Emergency Workplan and related City policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from City operations.

PF&R members have received training on how to operate the Cold Cut Cobra and the tool will be placed in service shortly to better serve those in our response area. Portland Fire & Rescue would like to thank both CityFleet and the Portland Clean Energy Fund for providing for the funding for this highly specialized tool that will both improve our response capabilities and reduce the environmental impacts of Li-Ion battery fires in EV’s.

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PF&R Responds To Multi Vehicle Crash On St. Helens Road With A Hazardous Materials Concern (Photo) -04/29/25

PF&R Responds to multi vehicle crash on St. Helens Road with a Hazardous Materials Concern

At 6:21 AM, Portland Fire & Rescue responded to a multi-vehicle crash on St. Helens Road (Hwy 30) south of the St. Johns Bridge closing the road down for hours in each direction. Involved in the crash were 2 private vehicles and 2 tractor trailers. One semi-truck was carrying auto parts while the other was hauling 2 fuel tanker trailers completely loaded. There was 1 patient transported to the hospital as a trauma system entry. All others involved in this accident were assessed on scene and denied any medical need. Portland Fire worked alongside many agencies in mitigating this emergency and all have cleared the scene some 7 hours after the incident was dispatched out. This complicated scene involved a complete shutdown of the 4-lane highway for the safety of those on scene.

PF&R crews from Station 22 arrived to find multiple vehicles and semi-trucks involved in a crash. A quick assessment of the scene found a single victim with potential injuries that required an ambulance trip to the hospital with all others denying medical need.

There was fuel and oil observed to be flowing away from the crash site mixed with the runoff from the falling rain. There was concern that this petroleum mix was from the overturned tanker which prompted the command officer to have the Hazardous Materials Coordinator for PF&R respond to the incident for consultation. Further investigation found that the oil was from the motor compartment of one of the semi-trucks and the fuel was from the associated saddle tank of the truck that began the day with only 35 gallons of fuel in the tank. On scene crews quickly put together dams around any local drains to limit the amount of fuel that entered the water collection system near this crash. Following this environmentally focused effort, crews worked to stabilize the tanker on its side.

One of the tractor trailers was hauling auto parts while the other was carrying two loaded fuel tanker trailers, one with 4K gallons of gasoline and another with 3.5K gallons of diesel fuel. The resulting crash had the gasoline tank on its side while the diesel tank remained on it wheels allowing for the diesel tank to be easily disconnected from the leading tanker trailer and hauled away undamaged. The loaded tank on its side, with a cargo valued at an estimated $500K, was a challenge to address successfully given the weight of the trailer and the potential environmental damage should the tank rupture. A plan was put in place to drill a hole in the tank while on its side, extract and collect the gasoline in a different tanker trailer, and then roll the overturned tanker trailer back onto its wheels. This required the use of environmentally safe foam, crews to have hose lines drawn with pumps on the engine engaged and pressurized water in the hose lines, and members breathing supplied air in the event there was a catastrophic event involving the need for fire suppression and rescue. In a very smooth, methodical, and coordinated process all under the watchful eye of PFR HazMat coordinator and other experts on scene, the fuel was relocated safely and the tanker rolled onto its wheels with no need for additional water flow nor rescue.

PF&R would like to thank our many partners in this long response including BOEC, PPB, ODOT, PBOT, PBES, NW Towing, and TLC Towing.

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