A fire destroyed a historic farmhouse in Chimacum Thursday afternoon in a blaze that pulled in firefighters from six departments across the region.

Nobody was injured in the fire, which may have started in the basement of the residence.

The residents were not at home at the time of the blaze, officials said.

East Jefferson Fire Rescue and five other fire departments were dispatched to the blaze at Short’s Family Farm, located in the
1500 block of Center Road, and to provide backup at other stations.

East Jefferson Fire Chief Bret Black said the call for the fire came in at 3:17 p.m.  Thursday, June 23.

“It was a dispatch for a working structure fire on Center Road, so immediately we had a number of resources dispatched. The full alarm is what we call it, from multiple agencies,” Black said while at the fire scene.

“Station 91 on Indian Island. Port Ludlow. Quilcene. Everybody [was] en route to the scene.”

Units from East Jefferson Fire Rescue, Quilcene Fire Rescue, the Naval Magazine Indian Island Fire Department, and Port Ludlow Fire & Rescue responded.

Firefighters from Kitsap and Clallam counties provided aid during the emergency, as well.

Black said East Jefferson units were already headed to another emergency and Naval Magazine Indian Island Fire Department was first on the scene.

“The first unit on scene saw flames coming from the windows indoors and immediately the occupant had said ‘Nobody’s in the house,’ so that changed our tactics into a defensive firefighting strategy,” Black said. “Which means we’re going to set up hoses around the perimeter of the structure and try and take things as safe as we can, extinguish the fire, and keep it from spreading to adjacent structures or threats.”

Firefighters worked into the early evening to prevent the flames from spreading beyond the home.

Explaining the use of defensive firefighting measures, Black said: “We don’t want to get in there with people, because that could collapse on our people and there’s no reason to risk the health and safety of the firefighters since there’s no civilians or occupants in the house.”

Center Road was closed just before
3:30 p.m. and remained closed for nearly four hours during the blaze.

“With the smoke, that posses a challenge because that’s going to blow burning embers off to adjacent structures which, again, we want to be really cognizant of that. That’s why we have opposing hose lines pretty much all the way around so we can watch that as the wind changes.”

East Jefferson Fire Rescue is still investigating the cause of the fire.

“The fire is completely undetermined right now,” Black said.

Without the strong relationships and assistance from the surrounding fire departments to assist with the emergency and staffing, Black said it would have made their job much harder.

“This type of fire requires a large response,” he said. “We are grateful to our local mutual aid partners as well as the out-of-county response we received.

“Poulsbo Fire back-filled Station 31 in Port Ludlow and Clallam County District 3 responded to the fire scene. East Jefferson Fire Rescue volunteers staffed Station 11 in Chimacum while most of our resources were tied up,” he added.

“The fire was already fully involved when we arrived, which pretty much means we’re not going to stop the extent of damage that you see right now.

“The best that we can hope for is to try to minimize it from getting bigger,” Black said.

A damage estimate was not immediately available.

“The house is going to be a total loss for right now. The best-case scenario is that nobody got hurt and we want to keep it that way,” Black said.