Seven years ago on Saturday morning, June 9, 2018, Captain Kelly Neimi of the Aberdeen Fire Department was working as Acting Battalion Chief.

He was looking forward to coaching a youth soccer team for a couple of hours as soon as his replacement, Captain Sam Baretich arrived, but as often happens when firefighters make plans, an alarm bell rang just as Baretich was parking his car. At 9:27 a.m. a general automatic alarm signaled that the Aberdeen Community Center, 117 East 3rd Street, may have a fire. Both Baretich and Neimi grabbed their gear. This was a one-alarm fire call so fire crews from both the Headquarters fire station and the South Side fire station were responding.

As Acting Battalion Chief Baretich approached the first traffic signal at Market and Alder streets he could see a plume of black smoke rising into the sky; this was definitely not a false alarm. He was hoping it was a car fire or a dumpster fire when he called in a second alarm at 9:32 a.m.

This was now a two-alarm fire, and alarm bells were ringing in the Hoquiam, Cosmopolis and Central Park Fire Stations. At 9:33 a.m. as he turned the corner at Market and Broadway, Baretich saw flames erupting from the roof of the Armory Building and called in a third alarm. Every off-duty firefighter in Aberdeen, Hoquiam and Cosmopolis was being called in.

At 9:35 a.m. Acting Battalion Chief Baretich arrived on scene and established Incident command. The crew from the main station were right behind him and immediately started running hoses to hydrants and to the front doors of the building. Baretich suited up, unlocked the doors at the 3rd Street entrance, entered, and performed a quick assessment of the situation. At that point the fire appeared to be limited to the museum portion of the building, and after unlocking the museum doors he determined that the best location for an offensive attack was just inside the museum doors.

By 9:38 a.m. fire hydrants were feeding the engine’s pumps and two 2.5-inch diameter hoses were in place and charged at the building’s 3rd Street entrance, and two teams were geared up at the front doors, ready to make entry. The crew from Engine 10 were the first to enter.

Fully enveloped in black smoke, they carefully worked their way into the extreme heat, moving to the attack position just inside the museum entrance where they reported “heavy fire and smoke conditions.” Although visibility was extremely limited, they had a thermal imaging camera that indicated “a well-involved fire toward the west end of the building at the ceiling level,” and structural members from the ceiling were beginning to fail and fall around them.

At 9:41 a.m., as Aberdeen’s ladder truck was coming online at a position near the southwest corner of the building, Baretich requested that Harbor Communications (Grays Harbor’s 911 Communications Center) send out an additional Mutual Aid request to Hoquiam, Montesano and South Beach Fire Departments requesting ladder truck support.

As the Engine 10 crew’s breathing apparatus low-pressure alarms sounded, they withdrew and Engine 12’s crew moved in to take their place. After moving to the same attack position, Engine 12 reported the fire within the museum space was now floor to ceiling throughout the museum, adding that the full flow of their smooth bore nozzle was having zero effect on the fire and that conditions were rapidly deteriorating.

The decision was made to withdraw from the building and move from an offensive operation to a defensive operation.

Speaking of his experience on Engine 12 that day, Capt. Neimi later recalled, “I have never in my career witnessed that amount of fire volume. It wouldn’t have mattered if we had a dozen 2.5-inch hoses with that volume of fire.”

As the Engine 12 crew was withdrawing and the firefight shifted to defense, the door on the east end of the building was cut with a triangular hole to allow setting up a ground monitor to begin spraying into the building.

The defensive effort would focus on containment, cooling down the hot spots, and protecting surrounding properties. Retired Fire Chief Tom Hubbard recalls watching “dinner-plate-sized pieces of flaming debris rising into the air” as flames erupted through the roof. Having the fire spread into the surrounding residential neighborhood was a major concern — and one of many.

At 10:05 a.m., Fire Chief Hubbard officially assumed command of the incident from Acting Battalion Chief Baretich who then transitioned to the role of Operations Chief. For the first 30 minutes of the firefight, the focus was assessment and rapid reaction, but even then, it was not all about fighting the fire. Fire team members needed to establish their perimeter, call for barricades and shut down surrounding streets.

Contacting the PUD to shut down electrical service to a building is standard, but this building also had high voltage power lines and pole-mounted transformers in the alley directly adjacent to the hottest side of the building. Cascade Natural Gas needed to shut down service to two gas meters serving the building. All of this was accomplished simultaneously in the first 30 minutes.

In addition to coordinating multi-department teams fighting a three-alarm fire, Chief Hubbard had the additional responsibility that day of ensuring that the Aberdeen Fire Department could still deliver on its mission to: Prevent harm to the public, and to protect property and the environment through fire suppression, fire prevention and emergency medical services 24 hours a day. He made a call to request additional resources from Thurston County, and units started scrambling at the Olympia FD, Lacey FD 3, and McLane FD 9.

With additional support on the way, Chief Hubbard and his command staff focused their attention on effectively engaging and sustaining what was sure to be a prolonged firefight while still responding to emergency services requests throughout the day. Efficiently coordinating the actions of 66 firefighters and 24 vehicles from nine different fire stations is not a simple task, and providing coordinated support for all those people and their vehicles added yet another layer of complexity.

To effectively manage the complexities of the incident, the Incident Command System was expanded to include the positions of Safety Officer, Public Information Officer, Division Officers and Staging Officer. Captain Baretich continued his role as Operations Chief and made sure that check-in and staging areas were set up so that when ladder trucks arrived from Hoquiam, Montesano, and South Beach, they could move into position, connect to a hydrant, and start pumping water where it was needed as quickly and efficiently as possible.

He remained in constant communications with his four division leaders located on each side of the building and maintained their focus on fighting the fire while Chief Hubbard and his command staff made sure that the firefighting teams got all the support they needed.

Chief Hubbard’s staff covered logistics like making sure that all 66 firefighters that would work the fire and respond to emergency services calls that day had food, water, a place to rest, and restroom facilities available.

The Incident Command Post monitored radio traffic, and made sure that freshly-charged radios were always available, fresh air tanks were always available, and that the engines pumping all that water didn’t run out of diesel fuel or water.

A second feeder line was run to the fire from a different hydrant loop and calls were made to the city water department to alert them to watch for pressure drops as demand increased.

By 3 p.m. the fire was under control enough that staff from the city of Aberdeen Public Works Department brought in gasoline powered pumps to begin pumping water from the basement. That effort lasted until 8 a.m. the following morning.

At 5:45 p.m.a fire watch was established and Command was terminated. Nonessential personnel and equipment were released.

From the first alarm to the first unit on scene was six minutes. Three minutes later the first fire attack team was at the door, ready to enter the building. The battle lasted eight hours and eighteen minutes; 725,000 gallons of water were pumped into the building during that time.

While thousands of artifacts were damaged or destroyed during the fire, thousands more were saved due to the rapid and well-orchestrated response by the exceptional team at the Aberdeen Fire Department with support from Hoquiam FD, Cosmopolis FD, Central Park (GHFD 2), South Beach FD, Montesano FD, Lacey FD 3, McLane FD9, and the Olympia FD all of whom responded to assist.

Ladder trucks from Westport, Hoquiam and Montesano were critically important in fighting the fire and ensuring the safety of the surrounding neighborhood. Additional support and assistance came from the Aberdeen Police and Public Works Departments, and the 911 Grays Harbor Communications Center who coordinated communications throughout the incident.

A new museum

Since the fire, History98520 (formerly the Friends of the Aberdeen Museum) has been working under contract with the city to catalog what remains of the collection. So far, this all-volunteer organization has cataloged more than 3,000 items including the “Old Tiger” hand pumper, and the horse drawn Metropolitan steam pumper, Aberdeen’s first and second fire engines. The city’s 1928 Ahrens Fox Fire engine also survived the fire, and thankfully, all three are restorable.

8 p.m., June 9, 2018 — Aberdeen Museum of History with Aberdeen’s first and second fire engines, Old Tiger hand-pumper, and Metropolitan steam-pumper both fought in the Black Friday Fire of 1903, and survived the museum fire of 2018.

The city has purchased a building to house a new museum, but there is a lot of work that needs to be done before the first artifacts can enter the building. In the interim, History98520 volunteers will continue to work with the collection, partner with local schools, organize historic walking tours and events, and design exhibits for the new museum.

You can support that effort by visiting the History98520 Micro-Museum at 200 East Market Street, or visit their webpage: https://history98520.org/ and become a member, or find out more about volunteering.