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The City of Portland, Oregon

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Phone: 503-823-3700

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55 SW Ash Street, Portland, OR 97204

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Increase Your Awareness: Compulsive Hoarding

2 Comments

This morning, Portland firefighters responded to a residential fire in NE Portland. While searching the home, firefighters encountered heat and zero visibility due to the smoke.  They performed a systematic search of the rooms but were hampered in their search by an excessive amount of contents in the home.  Firefighters located a victim in his bed in one of the bedrooms.  They took the victim to the floor ready to rescue him when some of the home's excessive contents fell on him.  Firefighters had to uncover the man to find him and eventually evacuate.  Sadly, firefighter/paramedics determined that the man in his 50's had died.

This is the second fire this week in Portland where excessive contents in the home have hampered firefighters’ ability to contain the blaze.  Although it's uncomfortable to talk about, hoarding can indicate a mental health disorder - one that affects between 6 and 15 million Americans.  75 U.S.cities have community task forces specifically designed to help address the issue.

Portland Fire & Rescue wants citizens to understand that hoarding is both a personal and public safety issue. If you or someone you know may have an issue with excessive accumulation of contents in your home, please visit http://www.ocfoundation.org/hoarding for additional information and resources. A fact sheet on hoarding can be accessed here.

    

  Portland Fire & Rescue 

   We Respond: Always Ready, Always There

   February 16, 2012 

 

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2 Comments

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1

jay G.

September 16, 2012 at 3:25 PM

I have a person in my complex that is a hoarder. Inside the living quarters trash ? is packed from floor to ceiling. Out Side it is from the house to the fence..(All around the house)
she lives at 8350 se Brooklyn st Portland OR.

2

Linda

October 27, 2018 at 12:55 PM

I have a very good friend who is a hoarder. Her house has dead animals in it and also two cats living in the most filthy conditions I have ever seen in my life. I took pictures when I was inside the home . The cat urine is so bad and it's filthy. Flies and fruit flies are all over the home, spiders, dust three inches thick . She's fallen multiple times and the stairs are so cluttered that no one could go up them safely. now she's lost her dentures in the hoard . I have tried to suggest cleaning, Offering to help, offering to bring others, NO. She wants to go through every bag of trash twice. And her car . OMG , it's so nasty . I don't know if I should post her address here. She has a dog she don't care for or feed. I have bought food for the animals on a few occassions. She orders beads and oriental JUNK off of ebay until she's broke . Sad sad case. She needs help and I don't know how to get it for her.

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