As W and I were driving to work this morning, we noticed that the all night BurgerKing he usually grabs a snack from (3am food being hard to find in Portland) was locked up and dark. Odd, because as long as I've lived here that place has been open. Just beyond it we could see a huge collection of firetrucks and a few ambulances. I wondered aloud whether this could have something to do with the Burgerking being closed, but dismissed it. T'would have to be a mighty fire to close a 24/7 fastfood restaurant ten blocks a way.

After I dropped him off I noticed other strange things. First, I saw about 6 firetrucks heading in the direction of my home. I live in SE, just across the bridge. After I got off the highway things got weirder. All of the streetlamps that usually illuminate the OMSI exit ramp were off. In fact, it looked like the lights were off on a large part of MLK. The particular exit ramp that I'm referring to is one of those long, narrow, winding single-lanes that curve up above the Morrison Bridge and I-5. Driving over it with the lights off and only my headlights (even my highbeams didn't help much, because the sides of the ramp are high-ish concrete--you can't see more than a few feet around the curve) was a bit nerveracking.

As I got off the ramp onto MLK things looked serious: there was what appeared to be a dense, charcoal-colored fog blanketing the entire area. Most of the streets were blocked off, but luckily the one that I take to get home wasn't. A few minutes away from my house, I saw an enormous building in flames. It looked like things were mostly under control, but the roof was still on fire in sections.

This was an amazing sight. The grey of the smoke mixed with the clouds, rising up into the night sky. It was incredibly dark: there were no lights except for those flashing on firetrucks, shadowed and hazy through the gloom. When I got out of my car in the parkinglot of our building, I could still smell the smoke. One of the local news channel's websites had a story and a few pictures up of the blaze--those are the ones you see here. Apparently it started around 10:30pm, and was declared a 4-alarm fire shortly thereafter. The warehouse where it started contained electrical supplies, and covered an entire city block.