Portland Fire & Rescue

What do you do when you make the effort to hit the grocery store early on a Sunday morning before the daily rush to try and leave and your front tire is now flat as a pancake? Hope that are arriving at the store early to do also get in front of the crowds. Members of Station 5 out in Hillsdale encountered that exact situation this past weekend.

While we don't always have the ability to assist in these non-emergency situations, we aren't going home until tomorrow at the earliest so serving you is what we do. So a quick hand here opened up a good parking space for the next shopper as the backseat crew on Engine 5 got in some more community interaction! Sometimes things just work out.

responded to a garage fire in a SW PDX residence in Multnomah Village earlier this week. Quick work by the crews limited the damages to the home so the occupants could stay home rather than be displaced for repairs. Crews arrived to a home the smoke pushing out of the garage as well as all attic vents which possibly indicates active fire in the attic space. An offensive fire attack team located the seat of the fire in the garage and cooled it while other crews accessed the attic from the interior to find the smoke was simply there as a result of the fire below and had not yet extended upward.

It is our goal to quickly extinguish any fire present reducing the damage to the structure as much as possible so the owner can occupy the space quickly with limited repairs needed.



(Photo credit Dennis Weis - PF&R Volunteer Photographer)

PF&R would like to share with you the first ever recipient of the Portland Fire & Rescue Trainer of the Year award winner, Firefighter Specialist Robbie Hendrikx.

FF Hendrikx has been assigned to our training campus for many years as both a trainer and instructor in the Fire Academy and now as a Firefighter Specialist at the training station. He is an incredible role model for the newest members of the organization, showing them a pathway to success rather than sitting back and telling them of what is expected. Always leading by example...first to the station to put his gear on the rig to staying up late and working through any questions the recruits may have.

He is involved with many special and focused projects that all benefit both the training division and all of Portland Fire & Rescue. In addition to his work here with , Robbie spends quite a bit of his free time either attending firefighting conferences to improve his own craft to return and share what he has learned to also being a requested instructor at these conferences, often paying for his own way to attend and share.

Portland Fire produces topflight firefighters through our training process as a result of the commitment of members like FF Hendrickx. Congratulations Robbie on a job well done. It is an honor to recognize you as the 2026 Trainer of the Year.