GARRETTSVILLE – Fire Chief David Friess remembers March 22, 2014, “very vividly.”

It was on that day when fire rushed through a section of town referred to locally as Buckeye block, and destroyed 13 businesses.

“I responded to the station, there were two guys already on the engine, and we responded to Center Street. We started pulling the hose off and bystanders were helping, everyone was helping,” said Friess, chief of the Garrettsville-Freedom-Nelson Joint Fire District.

Friess said 120 firefighters from 34 fire departments in Portage, Geauga and Trumbull counties came to assist the local department. Crews worked for 52 hours to put out the fire.

“The whole thing was overwhelming, but the support was wonderful,” said Friess. “We still talk about it today.”

Now, five years later, he, and others in the village situated in the northeastern portion of Portage County, continue to put that day behind them.

Read more in Sunday’s Tribune Chronicle.