By Tess Riski, Williamette Week

Portland’s Bureau of Emergency Communications, which fields 911 calls for the city, did not dispatch police when a Chevron gas station employee called to report a potential explosion hazard as dueling protesters threw fireworks near the gas pumps during a street battle.

WW had requested the 911 call audio from BOEC after learning from another Chevron employee who works inside the adjoining ExtraMile convenience store that her co-worker had called police Aug. 22 when a skirmish between anti-fascists and their right-wing adversaries spilled out onto Northeast 122nd Avenue and surrounding businesses.

The call audio, provided Aug. 25 to WW, lasted for just over a minute. The caller identified himself as an employee at the gas station, which is located right next door to the empty 7-acre Kmart parking lot where Proud Boys held a rally Sunday entitled “Summer of Love.” At about 4 pm, anti-fascist counterprotesters confronted the rally attendees in the parking lot, and the encounter devolved into a chaotic exchange of mace, paintball guns and fireworks.

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