2 Alarm Fire Destroys Garage

It took firefighters nearly two hours to control the blaze.

Flames consume a Salem garage, fortunately nobody was hurt. Photo and video by Jerry Freeman Salem-News.com

(SALEM) - At just after 8:00 P.M. Friday evening, multiple 9-1-1 callers began reporting an unattached garage on fire at 4932 Sunnyview Road NE, Salem, Oregon.

Marion County Fire District No. 1 was dispatched by the Willamette Valley Communications Center (Salem 9-1-1) and arrived within only 2 minutes to find an approximately 1,500 sq. ft. garage heavy involved in smoke and fire, immediately threatening the unattached home, only 10 feet away.

With the large fire continuing to grow, and the immediate risk of fire spreading to the home, the Incident Commander immediately upgraded the response to a 2nd alarm fire, bringing additional firefighters to the scene.

As the fire was so well involved, and having information from the residents that no one was inside, firefighters took a defensive posture and attacked the well-involved fire from the outside of the building.

As firefighters fought this fire, they soon learned that the fire had moved to the attic space of the garage that was extremely full of personal belongings, as well as a significant amount of lumber and other wood products including plywood and large wooden support beams.

This created a number of voids and confined spaces inside the garage that contained fire, requiring the use of firefighting foam to extinguish the fire.

Access to this scene was also complicated by a number of automobiles in the driveway including multiple cars, a motorcycle and a full-size Class A recreational vehicle.

Further, there were 20 foot tall arborvitae trees immediately next to the residence that had to be cut away so that firefighters could event get to the side of the garage that was most heavily involved in fire.

In all, it took firefighters nearly two hours to control the blaze.

Residents were inside the unattached home at the time of the garage fire and were able to safely exit without injury.

The MCFD1 Fire Marshal's Division remains on scene investigating the cause and origin of the fire.

At the time of the press release, the cause is unknown. Additionally, while there is no damage estimate available, the garage is thought to be a total loss.

Fortunately, due to the aggressive work of the firefighters, the fire was confined to the garage and never reached the home.

The residents were allowed to return to their home this evening after the fire was brought under control.

Video essay from the scene by Salem-News.com's Jerry Freeman:

Jerry Freeman is part of a new generation of dedicated news photographers who entered the Internet news industry as a second career. He shares in common with many people who fulfilled their life dream of becoming a visual journalist. Joining the Navy at an early age, and the Oregon Army Guard a few years later, Jerry has a wide range of life experiences. He describes himself as “a truck driver with a new found passion to bear witness to the world’s events.”

Teaming up with Salem-News.com he embarked on a new career as a video news photographer and reporter. Jerry's quick exhibition of natural talent and ability to shoot breaking news led to his becoming a published member of the Salem-News.com team.