TUPPER LAKE - Firefighters from all over Franklin County, plus some from Hamilton and St. Lawrence counties, headed to Tupper Lake early this morning to help local firefighters battle a blaze at a large building near a busy intersection.
"There were close to 70 or 80 firefighters that were fighting this thing at one time," said Tupper Lake Fire Chief Mark Picerno.
A family living in apartments at the top of the building at 61 Lake St. discovered the fire and reported it at about 1 a.m., Picerno said. He said he wasn't sure how many people were in the family, but they all got out of the building unscathed. He said the family hasn't requested help yet finding a place to stay, but the Red Cross has been notified in case they need it.
The building was home to Dr. John Manne's dentist office, a day-care center, an office for the Civil Service Employees Association, a workshop for local contractor Skip Keniston and an empty storefront. There were also six apartments. Picerno said he believes only one family was affected, but village records list four of the apartments as occupied.
Manne owns the building, Picerno said.
When firefighters arrived on the scene, Picerno said there were flames and smoke shooting out of the left side of the building, as seen from the road, the location of the day-care center and one of the apartments.
Picerno said he has no idea yet what the cause of the fire was. At about 7 a.m. today, he said they were starting to pull apart the building and get at the hot spots to put them out.
While Picerno was talking about the fire on the phone, part of the building made an audible swooshing noise as it collapsed.
"Oo, did you hear that?" Picerno said. "That was the building collapsing a little, which is actually good for us so we can get at it."
Once the hot spots are extinguished, Picerno said his crew will start investigating the cause. State fire investigators were scheduled to arrive on the scene at about 9 or 10 a.m.
The Saranac Lake Volunteer Fire Department sent its new aerial truck, as well as a pumper and a pickup truck, to the blaze, making it the first major structure fire for which the truck was used.
Since assisting departments responding to the scene had to have their fire stations covered by other departments, Picerno said he was trying to release them as soon as possible this morning.
Portions of Lake and Mill streets were closed to all traffic this morning, and village police Chief Tom Fee said police and fire police were diverting traffic down Boyer and Pleasant avenues. He said he expected the roads to be opened back up by midday.
Picerno said he appreciated the help from the other departments.
"We did a hell of a job, but we couldn't have done it without the help of the other departments," Picerno said. "Fire calls at 1 o'clock in the morning, you really don't have a chance to save much, but we got here as quick as we could. We'll probably be here all day."
