PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Clackamas Fire crews say a 2-alarm fire that sparked in the Milwaukie area Wednesday afternoon has been successfully put out.
The fire on Southeast McLoughlin Blvd. and Jennings Avenue filled the sky with smoke after bush caught flame and spread to nearby cars and an apartment building. Officials said the fire was under control around 5:39 p.m.
Officials say no injuries were reported.
Witnesses say the fire quickly spread, sending a plume of smoke in the air that could be seen for miles.
“It was just, it was huge. It was really big. That whole complex was on fire,” witness Connie Noble told KOIN 6.
Noble lives a little more than a mile away and saw the smoke billowing into the air from where it started near McLoughlin and Jennings in Milwaukie.
“As I was walking up, I heard a big explosion and apparently it was a car because there’s a car lot next door,” Noble said.
Clackamas Fire says they received calls about a fire in the arborvitae between buildings that quickly spread to a nearby complex of three apartments, as well as a car lot on the other side of the bushes.
“They evacuated the apartments and rapidly upgraded the call to a 2-alarm fire,” Izak Hamilton with Clackamas Fire, said.
Crews were able to get the fire out as investigators now go in to look for the origin and cause, but officials say they’re thankful to all who were quick to call 911.
“When we come to a scene like this, we rely on some of the testimony of bystanders,” Hamilton said.
As for Noble, she’s thinking of the apartment residents now left wondering what’s next.
“I feel sorry for the people that are without homes now,” Noble said.
Traffic has since reopened on McLoughlin.
