Van Buren, NY – A fire in the hamlet of Memphis destroyed the second floor of a home and disrupted the owners' plans to move to Oklahoma. Firefighters from Memphis and five other west suburban departments responded to a call about 11:11 a.m. to a fire at 2037 Warners Road. By the time the first crews arrived the fire...
View full sizeSeveral Onondaga County fire departments put out a house fire Monday at 2031 Warners Road, in Van Buren. No one was home when the fire broke out and there were no injuries. Van Buren, NY – A fire in the hamlet of Memphis destroyed the second floor of a home and disrupted the owners' plans to move to Oklahoma.
Firefighters from Memphis and five other west suburban departments responded to a call about 11:11 a.m. to a fire at 2037 Warners Road.
By the time the first crews arrived the fire already had spread up an outside wall from the first floor and had fully involved the second story, said Mike Griesmyer, first assistant chief of the Memphis Fire Department.
Firefighters covered possessions on the first floor and were able to save many, Griesmyer said.
Homeowners Robert Dattler and Yvonne Gerace were not home when the fire broke out.
Dattler said his brother-in-law, Matt Van Gordan, discovered the fire. Van Gordan tried to go into the house through the front door but was driven back by smoke, he said.
Dattler said he and Gerace are preparing to move to Tulsa, Okla., where Gerace has a new job. The couple already had scores of boxes packed and in the garage. They were untouched, he said.
His son, Joe, was preparing to rent from his father and move in, Dattler said. Among the belongings the younger Dattler appears to have lost on the second floor were collectibles from concerts, his father said.
It is not the first time fire has struck the residence. Dattler said he bought the home in 1993 after a fatal fire there and had rebuilt it with the help of his sons.
He said he and Gerace will stay with his sister, who lives nearby.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation, Griesmyer said. No one was hurt fighting the fire, he said.