After confirming that Auburn’s crews didn’t cause the 10-alarm fire believed to have started in the main hospital electrical switchgear room, Ballas asked how bad it was. “‘I don’t know John, you should just get down here, there’s tons of black smoke billowing out of this place, first responders are showing up.’” Redirecting to the hospital located 10 minutes form Auburn’s office, Ballas called the company’s owner to relay the news.

The building originally completed in 1896 closed for about a year and a half while the five-level facility underwent a nearly $90-million renovation that was mostly completed by August 2024. Having performed more than 50 projects of varying sizes for the hospital in the last 15 years, Auburn was well positioned to help the hospital in the fire’s immediate aftermath and bring the hospital’s departments back online one at a time to restore hospital care to the community. “We’re intimately familiar with the different departments and staff members and we know how they operate,” Ballas says. “We had access to as-built drawing plans, so I do think that we were kind of uniquely positioned to step in and help out.”

Ballas’ Marine Corps training also kicked in as Auburn set up a command center while emergency responders evacuated more than 160 patients and firefighters spent hours extinguishing the blaze. “There’s a term in the military called the fog of war, basically when things start to kind of pop off and the action starts, things get confusing,” Ballas said. “It’s really important—and I think it was shocking for everybody, the scale [of the fire] and everything that was going (on)—to stay focused on what we’re trying to accomplish: Let’s reel it in. Let’s refocus. All right, what’s step one? What needs to happen next? Okay, this is where we want to be. What steps do we need to take to get there by this time?”

But Ballas is quick to note that he leaned on Brian Backoff, the hospital’s facilities director, as well as SmithGroup’s designers and trade partners: Anania Plumbing and Heating and the project’s electrical contractor J. & M. Brown Co. “There’s so many people that contributed to the success of the project,” Ballas said. “Everybody was focused on and was aware of how sensitive this project was and the impact it has on the community.”

In addition to replacing most of the electrical system, the team updated the hospital’s emergency department, built an outpatient surgical facility, renovated the main lobby, enhanced labs and installed parking lot solar panels providing 1.5 MW of power—all while tracking submittals for an approximately $200-million insurance claim.

Andrew Brumbach is healthcare studio leader for the Boston office of SmithGroup, the project’s architect, interior designer and mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection and life safety engineer. “John kept a clear line of communication to the design and engineering team and made sure we were aware of on-site changes and issues as they developed,” he says.

Brumbach added, “John has been a great partner throughout the duration of the fire recovery. He has effectively managed multiple scopes, schedules and teams. He has remained steady and calm throughout and kept the team focused on making sure the rights steps were taken, the different parties were coordinated and the project was being delivered safely and on time.”