Friday evening, Forest Grove Firefighters were dispatched to a structure fire at the McMenamins Grand Lodge Hotel located at 3505 Pacific Avenue. The Washington County Emergency dispatch center had received several calls reporting a fire in the rear of the property, in a building used for storage and not connected to the main hotel. Crews arrived minutes later to find an approximately 800 square foot storage building fully engulfed in flames with a 1,000 gallon fuel tank situated less than 10 feet from the building. Firefighters deployed several hose lines to extinguish the flames, while also keeping the nearby fuel tank cool, preventing a larger fire or potentially an explosion.
It took firefighters approximately 15 minutes after arriving to extinguish the fire. After extinguishment, crews spent over an hour working on extinguishing hot spots in the building. Thankfully no one was injured during the incident. When the fire was noticed, Grand Lodge employees evacuated hotel and restaurant guests out of the main building as a precaution. The guests were let back in shortly after, once it was determined the main building was not threatened. We want to commend the employees for their actions of evacuating hotel guests in a quick manor.
The storage building that caught fire was approximately 100 feet away from the hotel building as well as 100 feet away from a retirement apartment building. Neither of those buildings were damaged by heat. The building that caught fire was used to store tables and chairs for large events at the hotel, as well as items to help maintain the large property, such as lawn mowers, fertilizer, and irrigation equipment. There were initial reports that chickens were housed in the building, but their coop was located a safe distance away.
With the potential of fertilizer in the building and firefighters using thousands of gallons of water to extinguish the fire, we requested Forest Grove Public Works personnel respond to assess the runoff of the water into the storm drain system. Their initial assessment found no signs, but they were going to continue to monitor the system.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Source: Forest Grove Fire Department