House fire on S Jackson St results in total loss
On October 13, at approximately 8:18 pm, Washington County emergency responders were dispatched to a house fire on S Jackson St. According to dispatch, the caller stated no one was inside the home at the time. We later confirmed this during a conversation with Salem Fire Chief Mark Day and Assistant Fire Chief Max Gamble.
“We got the call at 8:18 pm,” began Assistant Chief Gamble. “The homeowner came home and found it ablaze… All of the family was out, and they were able to get their pets out of the shed that’s attached to the house.”
He went on to say that the cause of the fire is not yet clear. However, the state fire marshal is currently conducting an investigation.
“We contacted the fire marshal per our protocol,” Gamble said.
“Not for anything suspicious, just for determining the cause,” added Chief Day. “Everybody likes to determine the cause.”
They added that this is standard protocol for every structure fire they encounter. So far, they have determined the area in the house where the fire started. They stated it began in the kitchen area and later spread up to the attic.
“Our guys arrived on scene and knocked down the kitchen from the back of the house, but it had already vented itself at that point and had spread up into the attic,” said Day. “Everything started to collapse on itself in the attic, so it made it difficult to put the fire out… We had to do a little bit of ventilation on a portion of the house and had to ladder up into the attic to get some areas there.”
Day said the response time was approximately four minutes, and that the Salem Fire Department called in Pierce-Polk VFD for mutual aid. In total, they utilized approximately 12,000 gallons of water to extinguish the fire, and there were roughly 20 firefighters on scene (10 paid, 10 volunteers). It took somewhere in the vicinity of 2 ½ hours to extinguish the flames.
“The structure is still there, but there’s so much damage to the roof,” Gamble added.
“It was a total loss,” Day said. “It was a well-built house and a tight house, so it had to vent itself through the roof. Being a paid department, very rarely do we get on scene and have something already vented on us. Especially being that close to the station. Usually, we get to it before it vents itself, and we do our own ventilation.”
Day explained that when a structure ventilates itself, it means the fire is spreading quickly and is causing more damage that can lead to collapse.
There were no injuries during the course of the evening, including first responders. In total, there were six apparatuses (fire trucks, tankers, transport vehicles, etc.) on scene. Also on scene was the Salem Police Department and Washington County Ambulance Service.
In the end, there was extensive structure damage from the fire, along with water and smoke damage. Day added that the homeowners are insured.
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