Indulge us again, won't you, in the confusing circumstances of the small, unmarked, and unkempt property on SW Barbur where the city stores valuables confiscated from homeless campers.

Yesterday, we asked Portland Fire & Rescue about the Portland Water Bureau-owned property, and were told something surprising: there were no records of this squat, 64-year-old pump station being inspected by fire officials. And a newer, bigger pump station behind it? No records there, either.

We'd called to ask about the building not having any address signage (a violation of city code, and potentially confusing for people trying to find it), but instead were left puzzling over the fact it apparently hadn't been gone over every two years by fire officials. So we wrote about it, and then this afternoon got a call from Fire Marshal Nate Takara. It was a mistake, he says, for one of their staffers to say the fire bureau has not inspected these buildings. It has—as recently as December 2012—and they've been blemish-free the whole time!

So why did someone else say the opposite yesterday? Because the fire bureau had the wrong addresses entered into its system for the two buildings. Or anyway, different addresses. When telling homeless campers where to pick up their things, the city gives the address 9748 SW Barbur. That same address, entered into the city's PortlandMaps site, yields information about the correct property.

But for some reason, Takara says fire had the property listed under 9739 SW 40th, which doesn't turn up anything on PortlandMaps. Same for the newer pump station behind it, Takara says. They had them listed under the wrong address. He couldn't explain the disagreements, but noted the buildings are situated on an odd triangle of land.

The fire bureau says both buildings are squeaky clean, with no history of violations. I asked about the fact that the small pump station doesn't have any address sign attached, and Takara didn't know why that wouldn't be flagged. He suggested the signage might have been removed in the last two years, but had no information that might be the case.

Anyway, the address question—which got us into this in the first place—is changing today, says water bureau spokesperson Tim Hall.

"I’m told the Bureau of General Services – Facilities Operations is placing address numbers on the building today along with a more detailed sign on how people can collect their belongings from the space being used for such storage," Hall wrote in an e-mail.

He also offered new information about the little building. I've been calling it a house, because that's what it looks like. See?

Hall says that's wrong. In fact, it's a pump station and has only ever been a pump station. It was merely designed—like similar stations around the country—to appear to be a house, Hall says.

"For years, the office space has been used by Water Bureau field employees who, working in the area, used it as a place to stop to eat lunch or use the restroom," he wrote.