Early morning fire closes Elephants Deli in Northwest Portland

Published 12:13 pm Tuesday, March 10, 2026

An early morning fire on Tuesday tore through Elephants Delicatessen on Northwest 22nd Avenue, temporarily closing the well-loved eatery for the near future.

Around 1 a.m. on Tuesday, March 10, Portland Fire & Rescue responded to a fire that reportedly started outside of the building at 115 N.W. 22nd Ave., which spread to the interior and roof of the 7000-square-foot building. The structure was built in 1947 and became home to the first Elephants Deli of its now seven locations in the Portland area.

Fire officials reported no injuries.

“This is a challenging day for the Elephants Herd, but we remain resolute. Our restaurants are grounded in community, and we are confident in our ability to band together and emerge from this adversity,” Elephants Deli wrote in a Facebook post.

Officials said they quickly put out the exterior blaze, but the fire in the roof structure was difficult to access from both the inside and outside of the building. Crews used saws and long pike poles on the roof to gain access to areas in the attic that suffered heavy fire damages.

After about 30 minutes of fire extinguishing efforts, crews called a second alarm fire as “aggressive smoke” pushed out of vent holes and “long flames” shot upwards from the roof. Due to safety concerns, crews started new efforts to try and access the fire through holes in the wall, but had little success.

Instead, PF&R used an overhead master stream from a ladder struck to flood the roof complex, which allowed water to find the fire from the top and drown it with “copious’ amount of water.

Portland Fire Investigations Unit was on scene early to evaluate the fire and has begun working toward beginning a forensic evaluation of the scene to determine cause.

The six other Elephants Deli locations remain open.

“The NW 22nd location will be closed for the immediate future, and we will have further updates as we assess the damage and our plan to return to service,” they wrote in a social media post.