TACOMA, Wash. — The Tacoma Fire Department has declared an emergency at the site of former Gault Middle School due to structural damage caused by an early morning fire Wednesday morning.
Tacoma Public Schools has been told to begin the process of demolishing the building immediately for public safety, according to a statement from the school district.
It's a sight that former Gault Middle School students were sad to see.
“I hate to see it go,” Rodney Wood said. “When I went here, they actually taught you what to do in life and how to make a living.”
The Tacoma Fire Department responded to the building around 4 a.m. Crews chose not to go inside because the building has been designated as "dangerous and derelict." The fire department has responded to multiple fires at this building since it was vacated over a decade ago. Tacoma Fire does not know for sure if there is anyone inside, but there are no indications of that so far.
The burn started in the back of the building, which was inaccessible to firefighters when they arrived. Instead, they waited for the roof to burn off and started attacking it from multiple ladders. The roof is completely gone in several places. People living in the area are asked to keep their windows and doors closed due to heavy smoke.
The building is vacant and has sat empty since the school was closed by Tacoma Public Schools in 2009 due to declining enrollment in the district. The district said the building faced "constant vandalism" in the years since. It was originally constructed in 1926.
“A lot of folks have made entry into this building over the years,” said Joe Meinecke, public information officer for the Tacoma Fire Department. “They’ve compromised a lot of the structure, sometimes there’s holes in the floor, and there’s just a lot of dangerous things for firefighting operations. Given all that, we decided not to risk a lot by sending anybody inside.”
The school district noted that the building has been known to have squatters, and they have responded to medical calls there recently, despite the city's attempts to keep people out.
“Since 2019, we’ve been here 11 times for fires, for a variety of types. The most recent and most significant was a fireworks fire that we suspect happened around the 4th of July two years ago,” Meinecke said.
The school district has made several attempts to find a new use for the campus since it closed around 15 years ago but was met with frequent hang-ups in the process. Most recently, the district applied for a permit to demolish the building in late September after a bid to acquire the property by Chaffey Building Group LLC fell through.
“It needed some work, yeah, but what building of a hundred years doesn’t need work?” Wood said. “To see it go up in flames…..I don’t know, it’s heartbreaking.”
The building group's proposal included rehabilitating the original building, creating 200 units of housing, mixed-use retail space and community outdoor space. However, the extensive cost of rehabilitation and increasing construction costs and interest rates meant the proposal would ultimately not be viable, according to a press release from the school district.
A demolition permit for the former school was approved by the city in December and was waiting approval from the Department of Ecology. District staff were working toward a goal of beginning demolition in February - this process is now expedited.