Fire at the Food Carts in Downtown Portland

Well, another day, another fire. I saw the news this evening on The Oregonian—two food carts in downtown Portland (SW First Avenue and Columbia Street) went up in flames and were totally destroyed. The cause? “A food cart employee filled a generator with gasoline and the gasoline spilled,” according to Portland Fire & Rescue spokeswoman Capt. Louisa Jones. But the detail missing from that statement is that the person was filling the generator with gas… while the generator was running. The gas spilled, there was an explosion, a fire, and the rest is history.

This is a very costly mistake. The Lai Thai and The Greek Gods Gyro food carts are totally gone; the Taqueria So Mexican cart survived. The fire spread and damaged about 10 cars. I am hopeful that all involved had insurance, too. On the bright side, nobody was hurt. Check the Oregonian for a compilation of tweeted photos from the scene.