Trump claims Portland is burning to the ground with ‘no evidence,’ Portland Fire & Rescue says

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — During a late afternoon press conference on Friday, President Donald Trump continued to voice his concerns about Portland.

“Every time I look at that place, the place is burning down,” Trump said. “There’s fires all over the place.”

On Sunday, he also told reporters, “Portland is burning to the ground.”

But in an email to KOIN 6 News, Portland Fire and Rescue Public Information Officer Rick Graves confirmed that isn’t true.

“There simply isn’t any evidence that there are fires all around us and that the city is burning to the ground,” he said.

Graves researched fire responses in the city from June 6 to Sept. 30 for 2025 as well as 2024 for comparison. He found that there actually has been a 15% increase in overall fires compared with last year, but not for the reasons people think.

“The bulk of these increases were more bark dust/garden fires due to inappropriately discarded smoking materials,” he said.

Dumpster fires also played a big role, he said, which also tend to be discarded smoking materials.

Building fires on the other hand have gone down 33% in Portland, Graves said. Firefighters responded to just over 150 incidents in 2024, and only 100 for the same period in 2025.

As far as incidents outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in South Portland, firefighters have received four reports of fires outside the facility since June 6.

Two of the reports of fire were demonstrators burning flags. Another report involved a smoke grenade that landed beneath a vehicle, causing the caller to believe it was a car fire.

The fourth and final report came from someone who called 911 after seeing a video on TikTok that made them think the building was on fire. It wasn’t.

“None of these required a response to extinguish any flames,” Graves said.

In fact, fire activity in the city has actually been lower than in previous years.

Data from Portland’s bureaus of Emergency Communications and Emergency Management show that from January to August 2025, Portland Fire and Rescue responded to 27,036 incidents across the city.

For the same period in 2024, firefighters responded to 29,586 incidents. During the same period in 2023, they responded to 27,427 incidents.