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A four-alarm fire that killed two roommates in the Sullivan’s Gulch neighborhood in the early hours of July 4 was started by fireworks that landed in a dumpster on the ground floor of the wood-paneled apartment complex.
“The origin was the dumpster underneath the carport,” Terry Foster, a spokesman for Portland Fire & Rescue, tells WW.
Foster says fire investigators have identified no suspects. “They’re still getting leads as we speak,” he said. “They don’t have any suspects at this time, that I know of.”
The fire, which consumed much of the three-story apartment building called Heidi Manor, killed Robert Gremillion and Seth Thompson, both 31, roommates on the apartment building’s third floor. Friends told The Oregonian the two men were from Louisiana and worked together designing computer games.
Thompson died from injuries he sustained after leaping from the third-story balcony. Gremillion was unable to escape the flames. Thompson’s girlfriend, 25, remains in critical condition.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler banned the sale and use of all fireworks prior to the Independence Day holiday. Neither Wheeler not Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, who oversees the fire bureau, immediately responded to requests for comment.
On Saturday, Fire Chief Sara Boone appeared shaken by what witnesses described as a grisly scene. “This tragedy was preventable,” she said.
Foster, the bureau spokesman, warned that the Fourth of July weekend marked just the beginning of a long, hot summer. “Continue to be vigilant,” he said. “The dry season is just starting and it started off pretty intensely.”