CARTHAGE, New York (WWNY) – Carthage fire officials say it was heat lamps inside Agway Services-Simon’s Farm and Home Center that caused the building to go up in flames.
Crews were called to the business on Spring Street in the village around 2:30 a.m. to find flames shooting from the roof.
Carthage Fire Chief Brian Draper says when crews began to attack the fire on the inside of the building, they realized the fire was too intense, so they had to take a more defensive approach.
He says it took crews 3 to 4 hours to contain it, spending much of the rest of the morning doing overhaul and extinguishing hot spots.
Draper says no one was in the building at the time but some smaller animals did not make it.
He says he thanks the close to a dozen fire departments from across the north country who came to help.
“I don’t believe we were really waiting on anybody; the responses were very well. So, it wasn’t like we had shortages or manpower or shortage of equipment,” said Draper.
Draper says he did talk to the owners of the store and says he is unsure what their next steps will be seeing as the structure is a total loss.
We did reach out to the Simon family to learn more about the future of the business, but we did not hear back.
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