PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Three people were dead after a small plane crashed into a row of townhouses Saturday morning in a neighborhood east of Portland, setting the homes ablaze, authorities told KATU-TV.
Officials earlier in the day had said the plane was carrying two people and that at least one resident had been unaccounted for.
Photos and videos published by KGW-TV in Portland showed one of the townhomes engulfed in flames while black smoke poured out of the adjoining houses. Gresham Fire Chief Scott Lewis said the fire had spread to at least four of the homes, displacing up to six families. He said two people were treated at the scene, but he didn't describe the type or severity of injuries.
The Federal Aviation Administration identified the aircraft as a twin-engine Cessna 421C, which it says went down around 10:30 a.m. near Troutdale Airport, about a 30-minute drive east of Portland.
As the plane went down, it knocked over a pole and power lines, causing a separate brush fire in a nearby field, according to the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office. The plane was split into multiple parts as it crashed in the residential area in the city of Fairview, which is home to about 10,000 people.
Lewis said the first call about the fire came from staff at the Troutdale Airport's control tower, who saw a thick plume of smoke rising in the air. But Lewis said that initial reports indicated “there was no mayday, no call for emergency” from the aircraft itself before it crashed.
The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation into the crash. The agency has sent two investigators to the site of the crash who will document the wreckage, spokesperson Peter Knudson said. He did not release further details about the crash.
The website for the Port of Portland, which oversees general aviation and marine operations in the Portland area, describes Troutdale Airport as a “flight training and recreational airport."
In this photo provided by Portland Fire & Rescue, multiple fire companies, including Gresham Fire, Portland Fire & Rescue, Clackamas, and Vancouver Fire, positioned hose lines to extinguish the primary building involved and adjacent structures after a small plane crashed Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024, in Fairview, Ore. (Greg Muhr/Portland Fire & Rescue via AP)
In this photo provided by Portland Fire & Rescue, firefighters use handlines to extinguish the fire adjacent to the primary structure involved after a small plane crashed Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024, in Fairview, Ore. (Greg Muhr/Portland Fire & Rescue via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — This week's frigid weather has many New York City residents shivering, scurrying into cozy spots and feeling sapped. Including the rats.
The United States' most populous city has been spared the Upper Midwest's extreme wind chills, not to mention the shock of record-breaking snow in the deep South, in this week's Arctic blast. But temperatures peaked Monday around 26 degrees Fahrenheit (-3 Celsius) and roughly 20 degrees (-7 Celsius) Tuesday and Wednesday, well below average.
Such cold has, yes, a chilling effect on the Big Apple's notorious rodents. But it boosts efforts to get rid of them, says city “rat czar” Kathleen Corradi.
“It's stressing out rats. It’s putting them in their burrows,” she says. “So we kind of get to double down now while the rats are ‘feeling the heat’ from this cold snap.”
New York City's wild rat species — Rattus norvegicus, also called the Norway rat or brown rat — doesn't hibernate in winter but does become less active when the weather is freezing for prolonged periods. At the same time, the rodent's food source tends to shrivel because people are out less and therefore discarding few food wrappers and other rat snacks on the streets, Corradi said.
All that makes for stressed rats and suppresses breeding, which “is really their superpower,” Corradi said. Norway rats can reproduce many times a year, essentially any time conditions are suitable, though they tend to be most prolific from spring through fall.
Jason Munshi-South, a Drexel University ecology professor who has researched New York City's rats, said those that are already holed up in subway tunnels, sewers, crawlspaces or other nooks can weather the cold fairly well.
Rats that haven't secured a hideaway might venture to unusual places, such as car engine blocks. Or a tempting basement? Perhaps, if building owners haven't diligently blocked them out.
But Munshi-South said some of the animals likely will freeze to death, especially if they're already sick, malnourished or otherwise weakened.
“Harsh winters like we are having so far will keep the rat population at a lower level if we have sustained cold, freezing periods,” he said in an email.
All of that, Corradi said, allows the city's rat-fighters to make headway ahead of the warmer months.
There's no official count of New York City's rats, but no one disputes that they have long been legion. Successive city administrations have tried various approaches to eliminating or at least reducing them.
Current Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who has battled the critters at his own Brooklyn home, created Corradi's position — officially, the director of rodent mitigation — about two years ago. Adams' administration also has focused on requiring trash “containerization,” otherwise known as putting household and business garbage into enclosed bins instead of piling refuse-filled plastic bags on the curb.
FILE - A rat is seen in Central Park in New York, Sunday, March 19, 2017. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)