Syracuse, NY--Firefighters needed to cut holes in the floor of a restaurant to reach an early morning basement fire at 316 Wilkinson St., Syracuse. No one was injured in the fire that caused moderate damage to the basement, and minor damage to the first and second floors of the building that houses Alex’s Grill. A resident of an upstairs...
Michael Bersani examines fire damage this morning to his tavern at Alex's Grill, 316 Wilkinson St. in Syracuse.Syracuse, NY--Firefighters needed to cut holes in the floor of a restaurant to reach an early morning basement fire at 316 Wilkinson St., Syracuse.
No one was injured in the fire that caused moderate damage to the basement, and minor damage to the first and second floors of the building that houses Alex’s Grill. A resident of an upstairs apartment escaped on his own, said Lt. Ken Heffernan.
The fire is still under investigation, he said.
Firefighters were called out to the fire at 2:37 a.m.
The fire was difficult for firefighters to put out because it appears to have started near the basement stairs, and the basement’s windows have bars or are boarded up, Heffernan said.
It would not have been safe to allow firefighters to go into the basement to put out the fire, he said. Instead, firefighters cut holes in the restaurant’s floor. They placed nozzles down the hole to shoot water into the basement until the fire was put out, Heffernan said.