PGE substation fire extinguished

Firefighters use foam to douse Beaverton fire that burned for hours

The Beaverton Valley Times, Dec 17, 2006, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Brian Hughes / Submitted photo

Brian Hughes of Hillsboro snapped this photo of the burning transformer at a PGE substation at Southwest 185th Avenue and Jenkins Road Saturday night. The fire was put out at about 3:30 p.m. Sunday.

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A fire at a Portland General Electric substation in Beaverton that burned for 20 hours and cut power to 50,000 customers was extinguished this afternoon.

The fire broke out at about 7:30 p.m. Saturday in a transformer a PGE’s St. Mary’s West Substation at Southwest 158th Avenue and Jenkins Road (map). It burned until about 3:30 p.m. today when Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue firefighters doused it with foam.

Firefighters had let the fire burn for hours as they assessed the safety of fighting the blaze. Fire district officials decided that they could smother the flames with foam without undue risk to the firefighters. In addition, a Port of Portland crash truck armed with halon gas was standing by for use if necessary.

The cause of the blaze is still unknown. Power was restored to all affected customers in Beaverton, Aloha, Gaston and Banks by early this morning.