ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Rochester Fire Department is ruling the cause of Sunday night’s massive warehouse fire on Leighton Avenue accidental.
One person suffered burns and is hospitalized.
When a 55,000-square-foot structure goes up in flames in a residential area, it’s an all-hands-on-deck effort for Rochester’s Fire Department and surrounding support teams.
“We had over 18 city companies on location here help fighting this fight and we still needed more help,” Rochester Fire Department Captain David Abdoch said. “So the county was able to help us with that with their large diameter hose and get water to the appropriate trucks and engines that we needed.”
Abdoch explained the severity of the flames when his team arrived on the scene.
“It's a lot of fire, you know, I mean to have it be progressed that far along with the first arriving company,” Abdoch said. “I mean, we have to we have to change our game plan. Because normally we like to, you know, get water and go inside and knock down the fire. But because of how big this building is and where we are, we had to take the time step back and make it an exterior attack.”
Abdoch was asked if that is what it looked like when he arrived on the scene.
“Yeah, and I got here late,” he said. “The first company had had way more fire showing because this is after we've been flowing water on it. It was just free burning. We trained to prepare for this. So we were just able to go ahead and do what we're prepared to do. It just goes back to where we train our bodies just like we train our mind. We take that time to really breathe, stay calm, focus on our training and do what we need to do. So we can take care of this and make sure everyone is safe.”
The call came in at 7:16 p.m. Sunday from a person who’d been working on his car inside the building.
“And then once I was able to get in contact with some flammable liquids and it just was able to spread,” Abdoch said.
Abdoch was asked what type of flammable liquids were found.
“Right now we're unsure of that because the fire was so heavy, it was hard for us to get inside and see what type of liquids were being kept in there,” he said.
The flames so strong it burned the siding on homes across the street. But the fire department was able to prevent the fire from spreading to those homes.
Some witnesses say they could see the thick black smoke from as far away as Fairport, Webster and Greece.
The warehouse holds multiple businesses, including Fleet Feet and Yellow Jacket Racing.
“Pretty much all of our race equipment was inside that building and there were some pieces of Fleet Feet equipment as well,” Fleet Feet & Yellow Jacket Racing co-owner Ellen Brenner-Boutillier said.
Brenner-Boutillier says she is thankful to the firefighters who fought the blaze.
“It was absolutely massive, but the first responders they worked so hard to knock that down,” she said.
The work to knock down hot spots and prevent more continued throughout the day Monday. As bad as this fire was, Abdoch says it could have been much worse. But there's a firewall built into the building right here that prevented the flames from spreading further.
“I think because of this firewall, we're able to help save the rest of this block,” Abdoch said. “Because if you look at it this building takes up pretty much this whole block. Right and if that firewall wasn't able to stop it, along with the rest of the firefighters out here, getting water where it needs to be, we probably would have had a whole city block empty right now.”
With the fire ruled accidental, no charges are expected to be filed.