The former Charlestown Mall is an abandoned property sitting in Herkimer and Oneida Counties that was recently the site of a major fire.

What You Need To Know

  • The former Charlestown Mall is in Utica and Frankfort

  • Though it’s a private property deemed unsafe, people are still trespassing

  • The Utica Fire Chief says investigators are still looking into the fire’s cause

"When we arrived, we had obviously a large amount of fire in the rear portion of the building that was already collapsing, and then we had a major fire up here. You can see where it burned through the roof and through two of the floors," said Utica Fire Chief Scott Ingersoll.

There were multiple spots that collapsed.

"During the time that we operated in there, we had some walls collapse, and pulled everybody out of there and just really took a step back, set up our water streams, and just kept putting water down from the aerial," Ingersoll said.

Crews from multiple agencies set up a unified command post, had hourly briefings, and tried to schedule firefighters appropriately since the fire lasted more than a day.

Thankfully, no firefighters were injured. Since then, despite the area being secured along with many "unsafe signs," and the site being a private property, one that Utica Fire Chief Scott Ingersoll says people have returned to explore.

"They bring bolt cutters. They cut through chains and things," he said.

Garbage is still left in and around the property.

"Now we have the issues of cleanup, and that’s something that we’re working with our state and federal partners on," Ingersoll said.

Ingersoll says one piece of silver lining is the fire didn’t happen in freezing temperatures. He says the fire’s cause is still being investigated by the state.