fire

"Shadow" knows. The State's fire dog knows how to smell out the fuels that feed intentionally set fires.

This afternoon, "Shadow" alerted three times on a patch of uncovered Wiard Plow factory floor -- a space that was more recently the office of a button-making operation -- indicating a chemical was used to help spread the fire that destroyed the building Saturday night.

The location of the probable accelerant is a space adjacent to the office where a smaller fire was found and extinguished earlier Saturday.

The evidence now -- including burn patterns -- makes it clear that two separate fires were intentionally set at the location.

Wooden studs between the two fire locations show that the second, hotter fire was on the east side of the wall between the two spaces. On the west side, where the first fire started, much of the paper that was thoroughly soaked by the fire department when it responded to the 1:40 p.m. fire was only charred, not destroyed. There was still an old family photo completely untouched by flames in the piles of paper.

The baseboard of the west side of the wall was also unscathed, further indicating most of the heat from the fire was contained to the east side of the wall.

On the east side of that wall is where "Shadow" told his master that he smelled some sort of fuel. On the west side of the wall, "Shadow" never alerted on any scents, even though he made at least three passes through the former room.

Batavia Fire investigators immediately got to work gathering material from the floor to be sent off to a crime lab for analysis.

The lab may be able to determine what kind of accelerant was used.

Yesterday, Batavia Police detectives said they have no suspects in the case. Four to five subjects were interviewed soon after the fire erupted at 7:40 p.m., Saturday.

This afternoon, Det. Kevin Czora and Det. Todd Crossett were not immediately available for comment on developments in the case.

Above, Lt. James Steinbrenner points to burn patterns from the fire. The stud is shows more burning on the east side of the wall between two offices, and the baseboard behind the stud is still intact. This indicates that the fire which consumed the building started on the east side of the wall. The smaller fire put out earlier in the day was on the west side of the wall.

Here "Shadow" alerts on a second spot where he picked up a strong odor of accelerant. When "Shadow" finds accelerant, he immediately sits down. The last spot the dog's nose was at is where an investigator places a marker.

"Shadow's" reward for good work is getting to play tug, using a rolled up towel, with his master.

Investigators were on scene at the former Wiard Plow factory building this morning with a backhoe in an attempt to dig into the rubble and find the origin of Saturday's fire.

Digging started in the same location as the first fire on Saturday because, Lt. James Steinbrenner said, photos taken early in the second fire show that area as the hottest spot.

The backhoe was being used to remove the largest pieces of debris, and then investigators would use hand tools to dig down to the floor level.

Once the origin of the fire is located, investigators hope to determine the cause of the fire.

The destruction of one of the Wiard Plow buildings in a massive fire Saturday will have the Mancuso Business Development Group going back to the drafting table, said owner Tom Mancuso on Monday night.

The very structure that was destroyed, despite its deteriorated condition, was a key building in redevelopment plans, Mancuso said.

"There's a lot to sort out and I still haven't processed it all yet," Mancuso said. "We need to understand what steps we need to take. We'll need to take some time and re-evaluate the viability of redevelopment."

Mancuso and the City of Batavia received a grant from RestoreNY for the Masse Gateway Project last year, which is the first phase of redevelopment of the million-plus square feet of industrial buildings that encompass the Harvester Center, the Masse building and the Wiard Plow structures.

Masse Gateway is intended to open an attractive entryway, featuring renovated Masse buildings off of Masse Place, into the entire Masse-Harvester-Wiard complex.

While the fire won't disrupt the Masse Gateway plans, Mancuso said, the building that was destroyed would have been redeveloped as early as phase two, and certainly by phase three.

The building was included in a RestoreNY grant that was rejected by the state a few years ago, Mancuso said, stressing its importance to his redevelopment plans.

"Now we have to move forward," Mancuso said. "I just don't know as we speak what that looks like."

The Wiard Plow building loss was a stunning blow, Mancuso admitted. When the buildings were acquired by the Mancuso Group in the 1980s it was with the intention to eventually redevelop the property, he said.

Mancuso even turned down offers a few years ago from construction firms that wanted to recover the beams in the building. Those developers offered to take the building down at no cost just to remove the heavy timber, but Mancuso turned down those offers because redevelopment rather than destruction was the goal.

"We bought the building to keep it from being torn down, so it is hard," Mancuso said. "It's not the way we wanted to see it go."

As for the bricks, which some people have speculated have some value, he said those evaluations might be overstated, but he would certainly entertain purchase offers for the old masonry.

Even as he takes a look at the viability of redevelopment, Mancuso said he is hopeful there will be a way to move forward.

UPDATE: In a comment on another post, Dennis Wight posted a link to the Masse Swan Village planning document (PDF) available on the City of Batavia's Web site. It clearly shows that the building destroyed in the fire was not intended to be one of the buildings left standing in the renovated complex. When we spoke last night, Tom Mancuso said he was leaving town for a few days. I have, however, left messages for him. I'll try to clarify this issue with him the next time we can talk.

Photo: One of the last photos ever taken from inside the Wiard Plow factory. It was snapped by The Batavian following a 1:40 p.m. fire on Saturday -- six hours before the second, more destructive fire. For the other three final photos available, click here

Four or five people were interviewed Saturday in connection with the Wiard Plow fire, which police are calling "suspicious," but stressing there is yet no direct evidence that the fire was set intentionally.

"We don't know if anybody was involved," said Det. Kevin Czora. "Again, it hasn't been ruled accidental and it hasn't been ruled intentional."

There is no evidence, according to a Batavia Police news release this afternoon, that the large inferno of Saturday night was the result of lingering embers from a fire earlier Saturday at the same location.

Fire officials stress that the location was checked by several fire personnel after the fire, and a fire investigator even returned to the scene an hour after the first fire was extinguished to continue his investigation. He saw nothing to suggest there was anything left smoldering.

Non-department witnesses were also in the building after the first fire and saw nothing to suggest the fire wasn't anything but completely extinguished.

The building was without electrical power, so a short or other electrical problem has been ruled out as a cause of the fire.

A reader of The Batavian reported seeing two youths running from the scene at the start of the second fire.

There have been no arrests in the case and Czora said that right now the police are just talking with individuals about what they may know or what they saw. None of the subjects are considered suspects at this time.

"We're continuing to do interviews and, where they may lead or not lead, we'll just have to wait and see," Czora said.

Lt. James Steinbrenner is continuing his investigation for the fire department. It will be up to him to determine the cause and origin of the fire. He was unavailable for comment this afternoon.

Earlier, Steinbrenner told The Batavian that it was unclear if the first fire was set intentionally or accidentally. There was evidence of casual use of fire in the building (such as four small birthday candles laying down with the burned ends hanging off a table in a room adjacent to where the fire started). The fire did not fit the profile of arson, Steinbrenner noted, because it occurred during the day and there was no accelerant used to fuel the fire.

The first fire, which was reported about 1:40 p.m., was a small fire contained to an abandoned office filled with reams and reams of old files.

Reader Carl Szalbak submitted these photos from last night's Wiard Plow factory fire.

Batavia Fire's Engine 12 was back on scene this afternoon after smoke started to rise from the rubble near the still intact part of the structure. While smoldering wood has been allowed burn well away from the remaining structure, firefighters were concerned this was a little too close. 

Curious area residents continue to drive by the Swan Street scene on a regular basis.

As a few last whiffs of smoke drifted from debris of the old Wiard Plow factory in Batavia late this morning, streams of area residents drove by the Swan Street location to see for themselves the destruction from Saturday's massive fire.

What they saw was more than the rubble of bricks, charred beams and twisted metal. They also saw the remains of Batavia's once thriving industrial history.

Firefighters were on scene as late as 10:30 a.m. as investigators tried picking through the debris to find the factory floor, in hopes of confirming the fire's origin and possible cause.

Lt. James Steinbrenner said they did get to a portion of the floor, but not the area they want to investigate.  Steinbrenner said the location investigators would like to examine is under much heavier rubble.  He said it will take heavy equipment to remove and it's unclear yet who will pay for that work.

Arson is still suspected, but police detectives have yet to announce any findings.

More pictures after the jump:

The bottom two pictures show the smashed windows of two trucks that may be associated with a business that had been (and might still be) occupying another section of the Wiard Plow complex. Based on the location of the vehicles, it seems highly unlikely that these windows were smashed by falling bricks from the fire.  A more likely possibility is that they were smashed previously by vandals.

A structure fire in Elba on Saturday caused an estimated $100,000 damage after a diesel engine connected to a generator apparently overheated, setting off the blaze.

A shed at 5327 Watson Road was destroyed.

The fire damaged the motor, generator, wiring and controls.

Elba Fire and Deputy Jason Saile investigated the incident.

(initial report)

There was nothing Tom Mancuso could do but watch.

Mancuso, donning a New York Yankees ball cap, and wearing a gaunt, dour expression in the unseasonably cold night, stood for hours just watching as firefighters tried to beat back the hungry red and blue flames devouring his building, the old Wiard Plow factory that his firm acquired in the 1980s.

Through the battle, Mancuso rarely turned away. He just watched.

"You can always build another 100,000-square-foot building," Mancuso said at one point. "You can never replace a 100-year-old building."

An Alarm of Fire
Just before sunset Saturday, Genesee County Dispatch started to get calls of a fire at 33 Swan St. -- the same location where a smaller fire had been extinguished by the Batavia Fire Department earlier Saturday.

On a day when the dispatch center dealt with hundreds and hundreds of calls, the switch board lighting up just fit the pattern.

But this time, this was no "possible" structure fire. Witnesses -- and there were several -- reported seeing heavy smoke.

By the time the Batavia Fire Department was on scene, flames were already showing.

The call quickly went out for mutual-aid departments to respond -- from Le Roy, Stafford, Town of Batavia and several others.

By 8:15 p.m., big balls of flame were shooting from the back of the historic structure.

Among the witnesses to the initial smoke was a reader of The Batavian, who told us he saw two youths running from the building. He said that later those same two youngsters were being questioned by police.

A little after 11 p.m., The Batavian confirmed Batavia Police detectives Todd Crossett and Kevin Czora were at the police station talking with two juveniles. Their parents had also been called to the station.

Earlier in the day, the Batavia Fire Department responded to a report of smoke coming from the rear side of the same Wiard Plow building.

Two youths reported the fire, saying they were walking in the area when they spotted the smoke. Lt. James Steinbrenner said Batavia Police questioned the youths who reported the fire and determined they were in fact just witnesses and not involved in the possible arson.

The fire, according to Steinbrenner, appeared deliberately set. There were papers spread around the floor of an abandoned office space that had been ignited. The arrangement of the paper suggested it was sometimes used as bedding.

An electrical cause could be ruled out because the building had no utilities service.

People could gain access to the space where the fire was found through a collapsed wall in an inner courtyard-like area. There was evidence that somebody had used a pallet to construct a makeshift ladder to gain easy access from the courtyard down into the office area.

Four burned birthday candles sat on a table in a room adjacent to the office were the earlier fire was discovered.

That fire was completely extinguished by BFD before it had a chance to spread beyond the office.

This evening's fire, according to Steinbrenner, may have started several yards to the south of the earlier fire, but within the same group of rooms in the building.

Fire Protection
Mancuso was clearly concerned about access to his building. He said work crews just within the past couple of weeks had welded shut doors that vandals had been using to gain access by breaking locks. There was also a 10-foot-high chain-link fence that was supposed to prevent people from entering the courtyard area.

"It was secured from the casual person entering," Mancuso said.

Several fire companies from Genesee County responded to the blaze, including Le Roy, which over the previous six or seven hours had responded to 15 calls in its own district -- mostly trees and power lines down.

Batavia's interim fire chief, Craig Williams, said the first order of business was firefighter safety.

"It’s a vacant building, so our first priority is making sure our guys stay safe, so we weren’t going to enter the building," Williams said.

Firefighters formed a perimeter around the building, striking it with several streams of water -- including three aerial (or ladder) trucks.

One Batavia firefighter said Le Roy's ladder truck crew deserved special credit for attacking the fire from the front of the building and keeping the flames from spreading beyond the firewall.

“There were breeches in the firewall, because of construction and renovations over the years, but we dumped a lot of water on it," Williams said. "Between the firewall and our efforts it looks like we pretty much got it stopped at the firewall.”

All evening, temperatures were at or below freezing, and snow flurries occasionally blew through the scene.

Firefighters were universally thankful for the cold and damp weather. With the high winds of Saturday evening, the fire could have quickly and easily spread if not for the recent rains. The entire Harvester complex could have been lost. Winds of 30 to 40 mph were carrying embers directly over the old factory buildings.

Town of Batavia Fire was assigned early in the incident, Williams said, to watch over the Harvester buildings.

Shortly before 11 p.m., heavy-duty wrecking equipment was brought in to start knocking down bricks and mortar that were first set in the 1870s.

By knocking down the ancient walls, the remains of the fire could be more quickly extinguished.

By about 1 a.m., Sunday, most of the fire units who had responded were back in service.

Updated at 11:30 a.m., Sunday, to include information about weather conditions and potential damage to the Harvester complex.

Previous coverage:

• Historic Wiard Plow Co. destroyed by fire
• Photos: Old Wiard Plow factory fire
• Reader Photos: Wiard factory fire
• Juveniles being questioned in connection with Wiard factory fire
• Historic building on Swan Street ablaze
• Swan Street fire caught early, before any real damage done

Here are 29 photos from the scene of tonight's Wiard Plow factory fire.

More pictures after the jump:

 

 

 

More pictures after the jump:

Here are a few photos I took while at the scene. I'll post more later. We've also received numerous reader-submitted photos and we will post those later. I'm heading back to the scene as soon as this post is up.

A firefighter said it looked like this fire broke out only feet from where this afternoon's fire was apparently set.

The back of the building is a total loss. There is a chance the front half will be saved.

A number of firefighters I spoke with said they were thankful it's a cold and damp night.  With the direction of the wind and embers in the air, Harvester Center could have been ignited as well, if not for cold and damp weather.

More later.

There is a structure fire at the Wiard Plow Co. building at 33 Swan St. in the City of Batavia. Firefighters are on scene, opening up the building to vent the smoke. The roof is afire with 20-foot flames. A second ladder is requested. A crew from Alexander is requested to fill in for the City of Batavia as standby. Looky-loos are posing an impediment to the firefighting efforts.

The fire is engulfing the rear of the structure. There was an apparent arson there earlier this afternoon.

"From everything I can see the main sturcture is OK but there's a lot of embers flying around. A good chunk of the rear of the building fell down," reports a firefighter.

All firefighting manpower from the city and town of Batavia are called to the scene.

A possible barn fire has been reported at 5327 Watson Road, Elba.

A generator that started smoking may be the cause of the fire.

An Elba chief on scene reports smoke showing.

A plumber from Oakfield is being sent to the Elba Fire Hall. Byron asked to stand by in its hall.

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A pair of teenagers walking behind the Wiard Plow Co. building on Swan Street spotted smoke coming from a window in the back of the old factory building, so they went to a nearby business and called 9-1-1.

When city firefighters arrived, there was just a little smoke showing and after they made their way into the building, they found smoldering office papers. They were files left behind from a previous business that had been set on fire, according to Lt. James Steinbrenner.

While the fire appears to be intentional, or at least set by the action of some person, there was no accelerant, which would be used in a typical arson.

The fire may have just be a result of people who were hanging out in the building and lighting matches. Four partially burned birthday candles were found in a room adjoining the interior office where the fire was found. The fire did not extend beyond that office.

The burning paper was extinguished quickly by the City of Batavia Fire Department.

The way the paper was spread on the floor, it's possible somebody has been using it as bedding.

Access to the building is wide open through a back wall that is completely collapsed.

A tree branch has blown into electrical lines in the area of 11095 Warner Road.

The branch is smoldering. Darien Fire has been dispatched.

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A possible structure fire has been reported at 33 Swan St., Batavia.

Batavia Fire is responding.

UPDATE 2:08 p.m.: There has been a good deal of scanner traffic and any response to this did not come across.  We just drove by the location and no fire is on scene, so they must have cleared.

UPDATE 3:24 p.m.: There was a fire. A small one.  In one of the old Wiard Plow buildings.  The fire trucks were (duh) behind the building.  A separate post on the fire, with pictures, later.

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Wires are down and on fire, possibly igniting a grass fire at 1305 Bloomingdale Road, Basom.

Genesee County dispatch has received several calls.

Alabama Fire is responding.

UPDATE 3:33 p.m.: This call was cleared some time ago.  Alabama Fire just dispatched for a new report of a grass fire at the same location.

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Electric lines are reportedly down and on fire in the vicinity of 65 South Main St., Batavia.

Batavia Fire is responding.

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