A thick, gray column of smoke suddenly turned black as it billowed into the sky in Northwest Portland Tuesday. Firefighters parked their truck on the overpass to I-405 and jumped out. An employee with the Oregon Department of Transportation parked his truck just behind theirs and followed suit, turning his attention to people on the sidewalk.

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“There’s propane cans in there!” he yelled. “I need you to get back!”

The fire sparked shortly after 2 p.m. at the corner of 14th Avenue and Couch Street. Crews on scene told KGW they didn’t know how the fire started, and they didn’t think anyone was hurt.

Firefighters had the flames out within minutes, keeping them largely back from the dried bushes and trees around them. It’s a routine they’ve grown used to: they’d been on more than 157 calls for fires tied to homeless camps in a little over three weeks.

Those numbers have been climbing steadily for more than a year.

“We have a real concern this year,” said Lieutenant Rich Chatman, a spokesman for Portland Fire & Rescue.

While there’s no new data to support such observations, in the last year, Portland's housing crisis appears to have grown at historic rates. This week, KGW learned calls about camps catching fire have spiked, too.

According to data provided by Portland Fire & Rescue, in January 2020, firefighters responded to 67 calls of fires related to homeless camps. In July they responded to 114. Since then, they've received more than 100 calls per month. So far this month, they’ve clocked 157 and counting.

That's a 134% spike in calls per month since the start of 2020.

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