When I read online about the fire of the big stack of straw southwest of Albany Monday, I wondered what could have caused it. So far the cause is undetermined, and Linn County detectives are trying to find what it was.
The hill on the south side of the Pacific Boulevard overpass bears the obvious traces of a recent fire. I could not help noticing this on Monday when I rode on the pathway between Albany Station and Swanson Park.
It looked like a serious situation, and it could have been, with Albany police and the fire department deployed on the banks of the Willamette River and a drone flying overhead.
The two-story building with four apartments at Ferry Street and Fourth Avenue in downtown Albany has stood there for 76 years. A fire nearly destroyed it on the Fourth of July, but the owners say they will rebuild.
You can’t know how excellent a service the ambulance crews of the Albany Fire Department provide until you try it out. Twice in the last two weeks I had the unwelcome opportunity to do just that.
Part of the Pacific Boulevard overpass in Albany looks different these days: It has been cleared of most of the vegetation that made the place a fire danger in dry years, as it did last summer.
After training, ashes and a wisp of smoke
Well, that answers that. As you can see, the “live fire training” by Albany firefighters Saturday pretty much left only debris.
Tags: Albany Fire Department, Boys and Girls Club, Fire training, live-fire training, Main Street