For more than a decade, the only remaining structure from the original Portland Zoo stood in Washington Park as a monument to the city’s backlog of deferred maintenance. The Bear House—a 1926 Tudor shed so named because, according to oral tradition, its first inhabitants were a collection of black bears—stood rotting because Portland Parks & Recreation had neither the money to restore the structure or demolish it.
That choice is now moot. The Bear House burned down early Sunday morning.
At 4:30 am, Portland Fire & Rescue received calls that the decaying structure was on fire. Firefighters responded quickly and had the fire extinguished in around 30 minutes, says Portland Fire & Rescue spokeswoman and firefighter Christine Pezzulo. The fire extended to a few surrounding fir trees, Pezzulo told WW, but crews used extinguishing hoses mounted on firetrucks to put out fire in the trees and hand-held hoses to curb the structure’s flames…