Car Fire Climbed Up Southwest Hills on Sunday Afternoon

While firefighters maintained it quickly, but drier, hotter summers mean urban forests are becoming a severe natural disaster risk.

Forest Park Fire (Brian Brose)
By Sophie Peel

A fire climbed into Washington Park in the Southwest Hills on Sunday afternoon after a car on the side of U.S. Highway 26 went up in flames and the fire crawled up the steep hill.

Portland Fire & Rescue crews contained the flame and and nobody was injured. Additional firefighters were called to help extinguish fire in the underfoot brush and foliage.

Fires pose a dangerous risk in forested areas as climate change makes for hotter summers and less moisture. Urban forests such as Washington Park, Powell Butte and Forest Park have unmaintained brush and “fuel,” as firefighters call it, making it easier for a ground fire to ascend to the trees and become harder to snuff out.

Last year, WW joined two firefighters whose job it is to scour Forest Park for fire risks. It’s a low-budget operation: They rumble along thin trails in a motorized golf cart looking for homeless camps where people may be starting warming or cooking fires, dense brush and other human-made warnings of a possible fire.

City officials call an urban fire in Forest Park one of the most severe natural threats the city faces.

Sophie Peel

Sophie Peel

Sophie Peel covers City Hall and neighborhoods.

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