Syracuse, NY – A fire first suspected to be arson at Syracuse’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception apparently was sparked by a broken light bulb, a church official said. A man walking into the cathedral about 7:15 a.m. on his way to morning services in the chapel discovered that a chair near the entry was on fire, said Bob Olney,...
Syracuse, NY – A fire first suspected to be arson at Syracuse’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception apparently was sparked by a broken light bulb, a church official said.
A man walking into the cathedral about 7:15 a.m. on his way to morning services in the chapel discovered that a chair near the entry was on fire, said Bob Olney, the Roman Catholic cathedral’s director of maintenance.
The man, whose name Olney did not know, alerted people in the chapel, then went back and dragged the burning chair out to Columbus Circle, Olney said.
Syracuse firefighters and investigators were summoned. At first, officials thought someone had set fire to the wooden chair’s slim seat cushion, Olney said.
They later determined the cause was accidental when they found a 250-watt lamp missing from the light fixture above where the chair had been and fragments of the bulb around the chair, he said.