Opera Block Fire
Date: June 25, 1922Location: 2 West Main Street, TrumansburgEarly in the morning of June 25th, Anna Quinn woke in her apartment in the Opera House Block to a loud crackling sound. When she went to her window, she saw a wall of flames engulfing the store below. Trapped in her upstairs apartment, she called for help and caught the attention of Earl Campbell outside. Campbell went to raise the alarm and get the town’s “chemical engine.” The flames had started in the basement of the Pearsall Clothing Store, but strong winds blew sparks from the windows to nearby buildings. In addition to the Pearsall Clothing Store, the Opera Block housed apartments, the First National Bank, an insurance office, a five-and-dime store, a drugstore, and the Opera Hall, among others. The fire spread so rapidly through the block that the priority of responding firefighters turned to containment. The total cost to replace the buildings was estimated around $150,000. The First National Bank, despite this high price tag, later rebuilt in their same location on the Opera Block.Chemical engines, or chemical apparatus, became popular around 1870 as an improvement upon hand-drawn water engines. The engine held tanks with sulphuric acid and bicarbonate of soda, which when mixed together produced carbon dioxide. The pressure of gas in the tank propelled the mixture out onto the fire. Chemical methods were initially touted as a more effective method of putting out fires. However, it became clear that the chemical engine’s primary benefit was not improved performance over water, but simply the time saving measure that firefighters did not have to first manually pump the engine tank full of water before putting out a fire. LISTEN HERE
Great Fire of 1864
Date: February 22, 1864Early in the morning of February 22nd, 1864, a young man named Florence Donahue was returning to his home after being granted furlough from the Union Army. As he crossed over the bridge, he noticed a light reflecting in the ice-filled creek, and when he looked back up, saw flames through the cellar window of the corner store. He immediately ran to raise the alarm, probably by knocking on neighbors’ doors with shouts of “Fire!” The fire spread up Union St. and down towards Main St. Because the town didn’t yet have an organized fire company. Residents formed bucket brigades, passing water from the creek to throw on the flames. Despite their best efforts, the fire ravaged most of Main Street east of the corner store, up to the Presbyterian Church. The church, legend has it, was saved by wet carpets thrown on the roof, held there by an eight year old boy. At the time, the origins of the fire were a mystery. Mr. Bower, the owner of the corner store, was originally a suspect. When the fire started, he rushed over to rescue some books, conveniently placed right inside the window where he could reach them. As stories of his efforts to rescue other residents and their belongings spread community suspicion soon abated. Multiple times, Mr. Bower put himself in great danger, going into burning buildings to rescue money and other valuables for his neighbors.Many years later, Mr. Bower confessed to starting the fire on his deathbed. He started the fire in his own cellar, intending for only his shop to burn down. He was horrified by the rapid growth of the fire and community destruction, and did everything he could to help. He never shared his motives for why he wanted to set his own building and shop goods on fire.A possible motive for arson was the temptation of insurance money. After the fire, Aetna Fire Insurance Company generously provided those in the town who had lost their homes or businesses with the funds to rebuild, including, it is assumed, Mr. Bower. There was so much insurance money in the town that it caused a building craze, and Main Street was rebuilt in no time at all.LISTEN HERE
Page Block Fire
Dates: November 4, 1909, and December 31, 1987The Page Block was one of the oldest buildings in Trumansburg, constructed sometime in the mid 1800’s. It hosted numerous business, apartments, and the Post Office. On November 4th, 1909, the building caught fire. It was made entirely of wood, but surprisingly the fire was contained to the second story and the ground floor survived. The Page building was promptly rebuilt, identical to the building before it, with an ingenious addition. The block was covered with sheets of steel pressed and painted to imitate the appearance of stones, which served both aesthetic and fireproofing purposes. It’s likely that the town’s history of destructive fires, in 1864 and 1871, fueled this innovative form of protection. After rebuilding, the building held a “moving picture hall” and the new Post Office. The building survived into the 1980s, although the steel siding was replaced with white shingles. This proved a poor decision on New Year’s Day in 1988, when a fire burned the building completely and without chance of restoration. LISTEN HERE
Trumansburg Academy Fire
Date: February 17, 1892Late one night in January Fredd Biggs spotted flames through the windows of the Academy, as it was called. He immediately went to start the engine in the firehouse, and along the way ran into Colonel Durling, who set off to ring the bells and raise the alarm. As the night unfolded it revealed the fire company’s shortcomings and weaknesses.It was incredible luck that Mr. Biggs was the first one to see the fire, since he was a member of the fire company and could go fetch the engine. Unfortunately, that was about all he could do. Before the introduction of the familiar large red trucks of today, fire engines were essentially a pumping mechanism on wheels that needed to be pulled to a fire by horse or by man. Once there, the engine needed a water source to pump from, like a creek, well, or pond.Colonel Durling did a poor job raising the alarm. It is unclear whether his shouting was too quiet, or he tried to raise the alarm with a broken or quiet bell. No one responded quickly enough to help Biggs drag the engine to the fire. By the time the bell at the Baptist church rang loud enough to wake up the town, fire had filled the basement of the Academy and was rising through the ceiling into the first floor. Eventually, the men of the town managed to drag the engine up to the fire, and found a water source in a nearby well. However, in another stroke of bad luck, the pump mechanism was frozen. The town, having been startled awake, raced to the academy, and found that all they could do was stand by and watch the building go up in flames. The building, founded in 1854, was destroyed completely, and so were the textbooks, furnishings, and teaching materials inside. The origin of the fire remains a mystery, although of course speculation of trespassers in the school circulated in the press in the following weeks. LISTEN HERE
Podunk Arson-Murder
Date: March 17, 1888Podunk, despite its reputation as a “podunk” little town or a “sleepy hamlet,” did not escape its own story of flame and drama. Milt Cuffman, Podunk resident and honorary “mayor,” recounted the tale of Richard Barber in This Way to Podunk, a collection of local history vignettes by Harold Jansen. As Milt recalls, on Saint Patrick's Day in 1888, he looked out his window late at night to see the sky lit up over his neighbor Dick Mason’s home. He ran to the fire, and worrying that Dick and his wife Ann were inside, broke a window to call to them. Hearing groaning from a nearby orchard, Milt ran to find his neighbor bloody in the face and lying weak on the ground. Mason called out to Milt, “Come quick. I want to tell you something before I die. Barber has murdered my wife, and tried to kill me.” Milt replied quickly, “Is your wife in there?” gesturing at the burning farmhouse. “Yes. She was dead before the house was set afire. Barber killed my wife with a club."The Barber Dick Mason was talking about was Richard Barber, a young Englishman who was well-liked by Podunkers and Dick Mason himself. As Mason later told the police, Barber had stopped by his home around nine in the evening. Mason went to the cellar to fetch him some apples, and even agreed that Barber could stay the night. When he wasn’t looking, Barber hit him over the head with a piece of firewood, and then went into the room where Ann Mason was sleeping and beat her unconscious. Barber returned to the room, threw a rug over Dick Mason, doused it in oil, and set it on fire. Barber then set some mats on fire, placed a lamp full of kerosene next to the flames, and left. Barber made his escape while Milt helped Mason to a nearby home. Bill Allen, riding along in a buggy, came upon Barber, and asked if he’d like a ride. Allen suspected that Barber might have something to do with the fire he had seen from the road, and brought him in to the authorities. Barber’s attorney successfully argued in his trial that epileptic fits drove him insane. The original death sentence was reduced to a life sentence in prison. Barber, at the age of 50, was released early due to good behavior in 1907.Barber is remembered by prison guards and fellow inmates as being an incredibly hardworking man in prison. He was a highly skilled craftsman and spent much of his time in the woodshop, where he made beautiful jewel boxes and furniture that were valued at incredibly high prices. Once he was released, newspapers reported he lived a quiet and respectable life.Images courtesy of The History Center in Tompkins County.LISTEN HERE
Trumansburg High School Fire
Date: November 10, 1968Location: 100 Whig Street, TrumansburgEarly on a Sunday morning, three managers of the high school football team arrived at the school to store equipment for the winter. Upon arrival, they spotted thick black smoke spreading through the corridor to the equipment room. They ran to football coach Tom Major’s house, who drove to the building and called the fire department. The Trumansburg Fire Dept. responded, and successfully extinguished the fire. Further inspection found concerning and suspicious, evidence. The firemen found equipment and papers knocked over near an open window in a chemistry lab, suggesting a break-in. The assumed burglars taped a window corner of the door to the main office, where a safe was kept. They were able to reach through the pane to use the doorknob from the inside. It is unclear whether they started the fire or discovered it. The Ithaca Journal theorized that after the burglars were unable to crack the safe in the main office, they started the fire in anger. Luckily the fire was small and had practically burned itself out before the fire department arrived. The cleanup from the smoke and soot was expensive and difficult, but there was very little structural damage. The fire came at an unfortunate moment, however, when Trumansburg was suffering a water shortage due to a break in a critical water line to the town. If the fire had been any bigger, the paper reported, it could have easily wiped out the remaining water supply. LISTEN HERE
Great Fire of 1871 - Trumansburg
Date: May 22, 1871The Great Fire of 1871 had a smaller square footage than the fire of 1864, but was more destructive. It burned down 11 buildings in total, including the Washington House. Further damaged impacted buildings down Main Street and up Union Street. During the fire, someone remembered that the village owned a fire engine. They went searching for it, and found it in a nearby barn. They were able to pull it to the fire, and managed to at least save the Baptist Church from complete destruction.The fire led to the incorporation of the Trumansburg Fire Department in 1872. Main Street buildings were rebuilt with brick (instead of wood) , many of which remain today. Some of the most notable still-standing Trumansburg buildings built after the Great Fire of 1871 include the three-story Opera Block, the Rongovian Embassy (now Garretts Brewing), and the building that would house the R. A. Moog Company Factory (now Little Venice) which produced the first musical electrical synthesizer.In the late nineteenth century, fire companies were both an essential public service, and a social organization for men. As the story goes, one group of men liked to gather in a room in the “Owen building,” most likely a hotel or tavern, to socialize. Eventually the men started having difficulties justifying paying for the room and gathering so frequently. Seeing the need for fire protection in the town, they decided to formalize their club into the Excelsior Hose Company. Sources differ on whether the Excelsior Hose Company became the Fire Department, or if the Fire Department came first, and Excelsior Hose simply joined their ranks. Regardless, these clubs played a vital community role in protecting the village from fire. Images courtesy of The History Center in Tompkins County.LISTEN HERE
