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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2013
Vol. CXXIV, No. 216
OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE CITY OF TACOMA Devoted to the Courts, Real Estate, Finance, Industrial Activities, and Publication of Legal Notices
Published Published Since Since 1890 1890
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LEGAL NOTICES BANKRUPTCIES LIENS ORDERS FEDERAL COURT AUDITORS OFFICE NEW BUSINESSES editor@tacomadailyindex.com
Once bustling Tacoma tide flats warehouse prepares for wrecking ball
Tacoma firefighters hone skills during emergency drill Posted online Tues., Nov. 4 Photos Courtesy Tacoma Fire Department Tacoma firefighters have to be prepared for all kinds of emergencies, including mass causality incidents. According to Tacoma Fire Department officials, when firefighters arrive on-scene of an incident that has multiple patients, or more patients than emergency medical service resources, they will declare a mass causality incident and begin a well-coordinated flow of events, including triage (determining the priority of patients based on the severity of their condition), treatment and transport. Firefighters honed their mass causality incident skills Monday during a multi-company drill that recreated the aftermath of a car explosion that ripped though several vehicles, killing four people, injuring seven others, and trapping three patients so as to require specialized stabilization and extrication. Crews practiced triage, treatment and transport during the exercise in order to be better prepared for a similar mass causality incident in the future. Additional photos are posted on the Tacoma Daily Index's Web site.
NOTE TO READERS
In observance of Veterans Day, the Tacoma Daily Index will not be published on Mon., Nov. 11. Publication will resume on Tues., Nov. 12. Have a safe holiday.
Posted online Tues., Nov. 5 Article and Photos By Todd Matthews, Editor It's hard to imagine it today, but the sprawling, abandoned and boarded up warehouse near the corner of East 11th Street and Thorne Road on the Port of Tacoma tide flats was once a hub of economic activity and headquarters for two prominent Tacoma businesses. According to Port of Tacoma staff and archival records available at Tacoma Public Library's Northwest Room, the building was constructed in 1948 to serve Washington Steel Products, which was founded three years earlier in Seattle and prided itself as the only Pacific Northwest manufacturer of builder's hardware such as enameled metal food drawers, revolving corner shelves, knobs, pulls and hinges. As the company grew, so did its manufacturing facility, with three building additions between 1950 and 1953 costing more than $1 million. At the height of its operations during the late-1950s, Washington Steel Products manufactured 450 products, employed 475 people, and boasted a payroll of $1.5 million. That success drew the attention of Chicagobased Ekco Products Company, which purchased Washington Steel Products in October of 1959. By 1963, however, manufacturing moved elsewhere and the plant closed. The site wasn't quiet for long. In 1965, Brown & Haley, the Tacoma candy-maker that produces Almond Roca and dates back to 1912, moved into the 116,000-square-foot building and remained there for more than 40 years. Seven years ago, the Port of Tacoma purchased the property, located at 1940 East 11th Street, for $3 million and continued to lease the warehouse to the candy maker until August of 2007, when a city building inspector "red tagged" the structure, citing two broken trusses and extensive roof leaks. Last year, the Port of Tacoma began to make plans to demolish the building. One Port staffer told commissioners the building had reached the end of its useful life. Another staff member told commissioners any historic significance had been stripped away and the structure was basically a shell of a building. The Tacoma Daily Index photographed the abandoned building in March of 2012. Evidence of the candy maker's presence still existed in some places: the building's trim was painted the familiar pink
color of Almond Roca tins; a faded sign directed delivery drivers to the receiving department; and a reception counter and empty office spaces were visible if you peered through dust-covered windows. The Index returned to the site this week to find windows boarded over and the entire 5.6-acre property ringed by a chain-link fence. The Port of Tacoma is expected to raze the building next summer and use the site to expand its operations.