A fire damaged a contractor's construction trailer at the Clean Water Services wastewater treatment facility on Fern Hill Road in Forest Grove on Wednesday evening.
Forest Grove Fire & Rescue responded to the scene at the facility after being alerted by a community member, according to a Facebook post from the department. Fern Hill Road was temporarily closed due to a hose line connected to a hydrant, reopening at 7:05 p.m.
Crews had the fire knocked down within five minutes of arrival, said Dave Nemeyer, a spokesperson for Forest Grove Fire & Rescue.
“It’s a small [shed] that the construction company used as an office,” Nemeyer said. “Crews had the fire knocked down within five minutes of arrival,” he said, describing the fire as a “straightforward call.”
An off-duty Clean Water Services employee who spotted the fire while driving by also responded, immediately opening the facility’s security gates for FGF&R, which helped reduce response time, according to Julie Cortez, communications manager and public information officer for Clean Water Services.
No one was injured in the fire. There were no employees on site at the time, Cortez said.
While Clean Water Services treatment facilities operate 24 hours a day, the Forest Grove and Hillsboro water resource recovery facilities are monitored remotely after hours by operations staff at the agency’s Rock Creek facility, who respond to alarms or call in support if needed, Cortez said in an email to News in the Grove.
There was no impact to wastewater treatment operations, and no environmental impacts were caused by the fire beyond standard smoke from burned construction materials, which did not contain chemicals, according to Cortez. A nearby construction crane, which has towered over east Forest Grove for months, was inspected, deemed safe and returned to service.
The facility is fully operational, Cortez said.
Forest Grove Fire & Rescue is investigating the cause of the fire.
