PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — For many people, the Fourth of July means food, fun and fireworks. For others, the holiday serves as a painful reminder of lives forever changed.
Five years after a firework sparked the deadly Heidi Manor apartment fire in Northeast Portland, the empty lot where the building once stood remains a stark reminder of the tragedy that prompted Portland to ban the sale and use of personal fireworks citywide.
“It might be something that affects you or it could be something that affects someone who’s totally innocent,” Robert Gremillion, whose son was killed in the fire, told KOIN 6 News in July 2025, when the city first launched its online fireworks reporting tool…