VIDEO: Apparent explosion causes concern in NE Portland neighborhood

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — An apparent explosion rocked a Northeast Portland neighborhood Tuesday night and has left residents looking for answers.
 
Just before 10 p.m. Tuesday night, neighbors said they heard a massive boom and saw a flash that lit up their windows, even with the curtains drawn. This happened in the area of 48th Street and NE Fremont.
 
Caroline Leaver said the noise was so loud it shook her windows.
 
“Immediately I stopped and just kind of paused for a second,” she said. “My phone started going off. I started getting texts from multiple neighbors who also heard the boom. We stepped outside and there’s probably eight people out just kind of wondering what was going on. Multiple people said they saw a flash of light.”
 
Leaver said several of her neighbors called 911. Portland Police said officers searched the area and found evidence of a firework, but did not specify where in the neighborhood.
 
Some neighbors were skeptical that a noise that loud was a firework but thought it could be a transformer blowing up.
 
“We’ve had our transformer go out up a block here,” resident David Hackney said. “That’s what it sounded like to me. It’s just kind of a percussion kind of sound. Loud. Boom. We came out and several people out amongst the neighborhood, but nobody, nobody kind of knew what was going on.”
 
Pacific Power reported no outages in the area Tuesday night.
 
Brendan Raher also lives in the area, and said he was watching a show with headphones Tuesday night but he still heard the boom. He said he had seen a transformer blow before, but Tuesday was different.
 
“The last time we saw a transformer blew up, it was multiple colors, too,” he said. “It wasn’t just white. It was kind of a red, blue, all the spectrum. This was just solid white. So, yes, that is perplexing.”