By Rick Moriarty
syracuse.com
(TNS)
Syracuse, N.Y. – Nine minutes after the call came in about a fire at the former Sisters of St. Francis convent on Syracuse’s North Side, city firefighters reached the raging flames on the historic structure’s fourth floor.
They quickly began attacking the blaze with water from the hoses they dragged up four flights of stairs and started searching for possible victims.
But just seven minutes later, an incident commander on the scene ordered firefighters back down to the third floor for their safety.
“All interior crews, retreat to the third floor,” he barked over the radio.
But with the situation deteriorating quickly, commanders ordered all firefighters out of the building just a minute later.
“We’re going to go totally outside ops on this,” one of them said. “The whole fourth floor is just about off.”
They all got out. And about six minutes later, the building’s chimney crashed down onto the roof, which would ultimately begin to crumble into those top floors.
Fire logs and radio calls detail the frantic first minutes of the fight Friday night to save the 129-year-old building known as the Motherhouse of St. Anthony’s Convent.
It took more than 100 firefighters 24 hours to extinguish the flames in the building, which also was home to Maria Regina College for years. Three of them suffered minor injuries but were back on duty by Monday.
City officials, including Mayor Ben Walsh , said they do not know if the effort to save the historic building was successful. Investigators and code inspectors do not dare go inside the building for fear it will collapse.
On Monday morning, little remained of the building’s roof and fourth floor. The flames made their way into parts of the third floor before firefighters managed to stop them. And the thousands of gallons of water poured onto the fire damaged most of the rest of the structure, which was designed by famed Syracuse architect Archimedes Russell.
Walsh said the building, which has been vacant since the Sisters of St. Francis moved out 10 years ago, may have to be demolished. Police suspect arson but are still investigating.
The first reports of a fire came in at 6:28 p.m. Friday . A caller reported “flames coming from the roof” of what they thought was an apartment building at 1024 Court St. but what turned out to be the former convent. Other callers reported heavy gray and black smoke coming from the roof.
The first firefighters arrived just four minutes later.
“We’ve got a pretty heavy fire four floors up,” a Syracuse Fire Department officer quickly reported.
Within five minutes of arriving, at 6:37 p.m. , firefighters had entered the building from two sides and pulled hoses up to the top floor.
“We’ve located the fire on the fourth floor,” a firefighter reported.
There, they began hitting the flames with water and searching for anyone who might be trapped inside.
But the flames and heat on the fourth floor soon became too much for the firefighters to remain there. The call went out at 6:45 p.m. for everyone to move quickly to the third floor.
“Everybody, retreat to the third,” said a commander.
They weren’t there for long.
At 6:46 p.m. , just a minute later, the incident commander ordered everyone out of the building. City Fire Chief Michael Monds said officers feared the structural integrity of the building had been compromised.
About five minutes after firefighters left the building, the structure’s chimney collapsed onto what was left of the roof, proving the decision to fight the blaze from the outside was the right one.
As the magnitude of the fire became apparent, officers began asking for more equipment and personnel to be sent to the scene.
“We’re going to be tied up here for a very long time with multiple apparatus,” one said over the radio.
He was right. The fire department had 61 firefighters at the scene during the peak of the fire. Winds up to 15 mph spread the flames. A total of 148 firefighters, working in shifts, fought the blaze Friday night and most of the day Saturday.
The flames were not put out for good until 6:30 p.m. Saturday . Firefighters remained on site until 9:23 a.m. Sunday to make sure no embers rekindled the blaze.
“This fire was one of the largest our department has faced in decades in terms of the size of the building and the volume of fire that we faced,” Monds said.
Police said trespassers have been known to sleep in the vacant building and that a witness reported seeing someone near the structure shortly before the fire. Officials said they have not been able to go inside the building to conduct a thorough search.
Though the fate of the historic building remains unknown, Monds noted that the department was able to keep the fire from spreading to nearby buildings on the site.
A Rochester company has a deal to buy the eight-acre campus from owner Mark Congel and turn it into apartments for low-income seniors.
Twenty-six of those apartments were to be in the building that burned, but Walsh said another 156 units could still be built in the other buildings on the campus.
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