The authorities said that a driver rammed a car containing multiple explosive devices and propane tanks into an athletic club in Portland, Ore., early on Saturday, leaving behind a complex scene that officials said they were still dismantling more than 12 hours later.
The driver was killed, officials said. The driver’s identity and motive were not immediately known.
The medical examiner’s office has “been unable to determine the identity of this individual because of the risk involved as we continue to clear away other explosive devices,” Chief Bob Day of the Portland Police Bureau said during a news conference on Saturday afternoon.
Portland Fire and Rescue responded to a report that a car had crashed through the front entrance of the Multnomah Athletic Club and caught fire around 3 a.m., according to Terry Foster, a spokesman for the department.
The driver had been slowly driving around the club before ramming the car through its front window, turned right and crashed near several restaurants on the ground floor, according to Cmdr. James Crooker of the Portland Police Bureau.
Employees of the club found the car “engulfed in flames,” Commander Crooker said. No employees of the club were injured, said Mike Benner, a Portland Police Bureau spokesman.
After the fire was under control, emergency responders found a man dead in the car, the authorities said.
Shortly after 4 a.m., the Portland Police Bureau’s Explosive Disposal Unit entered the club and found several incendiary devices and improvised explosive devises inside the car, Jim DeFrain, the supervisor of the Metro Explosive Disposal Unit and Portland Police Bureau officer, said during the news conference.
Some of the explosive devices had detonated and caused “significant damage,” Officer DeFrain said. Several other explosives had started to go off but did not completely detonate.
Officer DeFrain declined to specify the number of explosive devices investigators had found, or what they were.
He said that there had been “three or four times” when his team found a new explosive device it needed to handle, including moments before the news conference, which happened around 3 p.m. local time.
“This is a dirty, dangerous, complex job,” Officer DeFrain said. “I’ve been a bomb technician here in the city for over 13 years. This is by far the most complex scene that I’ve ever dealt with.”
The authorities have been using robots to remove the propane tanks and other dangerous materials, he said.
“There is a concern that they could go off if we don’t handle them appropriately,” he said.
The police advised the public to avoid the area near the club, which overlooks Providence Park in Portland’s Goose Hollow neighborhood.
The Multnomah Athletic Club said on social media that it expected a prolonged closure.
Charles Leverton, the general manager of the club, said during the news conference that its community was shaken after the crash.
The facility is among the largest athletic and social clubs in the United States, according to its website. The 600,000-square-foot, eight-floor facility has multiple restaurants, swimming pools, athletic courts and banquet facilities.
The inside of the club was “not as damaged as it could have been,” given the number of explosive devices, Commander Crooker said.
Keith Wilson, the mayor of Portland, said that emergency responders had prevented a “catastrophic event.”
The crash on Saturday came less than a month after another car crash near the club that injured a security guard, Chief Day said. The authorities do not believe the two crashes were related.
Chief Day acknowledged that the crash happened mere hours after “May Day” workers protests in Portland concluded. But he said the crash did not appear to be related to domestic terrorism.
“We feel confident in assuring the community that there are no other threats, that this is isolated,” he said.
Hannah Ziegler is a general assignment reporter for The Times, covering topics such as crime, business, weather, pop culture and online trends.
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