Some Portlanders are again complaining about an unpleasant odor of uncertain origin, weeks after a mysterious smell wafted through the city and Southwest Washington, baffling residents and officials.
“It smells like onions and fart :(,” one person wrote on Reddit Tuesday, prompting a slew of replies confirming people’s concerns.
On September 24-25, a sharp odor swept through Southwest Washington and Portland, first popping up in Kelso and moving down the Interstate 5 corridor. The smell was reported as far north as Centralia. The source was a mystery, given no industries reported leaks or releases and the U.S. Geological Survey said volcanic activity was not responsible.
Officials still haven’t identified the odor’s source.
The smell that is bothering some Portlanders two weeks later was first reported around the same time as an industrial fire in Northwest Portland. A Portland Fire & Rescue spokesperson said it is “possible there may be odors emanating” but, based on what he saw, it’s unlikely.
“I was on site of the fire and there was not an odor present and the suppression occurred quickly,” Rick Graves said in an email.
Nonetheless, Redditors’ complaints pointed to a distinctly industrial smell, like “fresh asphalt or rubber/oil burning smell,” according to one, and “burning rubber,” wrote another.
The industrial fire, at a roofing company, spread to machinery used to heat up a tar solution, Portland Fire & Rescue said in a statement early Tuesday. When firefighters arrived at the scene, they saw a “significant amount of smoke” coming out of the plant’s smokestack.
