Officials believe huge Amsterdam fire was set (with photo gallery, videos)

Investigators believe the massive fire in a vacant brick factory building on Brookside Avenue that scorched a pair of homes and threatened several others was intentionally set late Wednesday evening.

Large chunks of the former Amsterdam Broom Co. factory were leveled. Amsterdam Police Detective Owen Fuhs said statements from witnesses and physical evidence gathered from the badly damaged building suggest foul play.

The blaze was fueled by thousands of old books stored in the block-long three-story factory and spread quickly throughout the structure, a tax foreclosure now owned by the city. Firefighters were called to the scene shortly before midnight and found a blaze that was rapidly burning out of control.

Homes across the street and adjacent to the factory were ignited by embers from the fire. City police evacuated as many as 60 residents from Brookside Avenue and nearby streets while nine area fire companies battled the conflagration throughout the morning and into the afternoon Thursday.

“We called everybody we could,” city Fire Chief Richard Liberti said.

No injuries were reported from the fire. However, one city firefighter was treated for heat exhaustion.

About 20 of the evacuees sought refuge at the Lynch Literacy Academy building, where the Red Cross of Northeastern New York set up a temporary shelter. Those who weren’t evacuated had to deal with the loss of power for most of the early morning hours. National Grid was able to restore electricity later in the day.

Crews remained on the scene into the evening, as firefighters continued to douse piles of rubble from the mostly collapsed factory. Liberti said the remaining sections of the factory will have to be torn down, in addition to a badly damaged vacant home next door.

“We’re going to try to get as much of it down as we can,” he said, surveying the toppled factory.

The blaze turned the immediate area into a blast furnace, scorching utility poles, melting wires and street lights, and warping the siding on several nearby houses. Across the street, a house on the corner of Hempton Street sustained major fire damage, leaving at least three people homeless.

Mayor Ann Thane praised firefighters for acting quickly to prevent the fire from spreading throughout the block. She said the searing heat coupled with the magnitude of the fire caused conditions that were nearly incomprehensible.

“It’s as close as you can get to hell,” she said from the scene. “Look how enormous the building was and now it’s just embers.”

From glow to inferno

Brookside Avenue resident Edwin Rivera was among the first to spot the fire while walking his rat terrier, Clyde. At one point during the walk, he said the dog seemed fixated on the factory building.

Upon closer inspection, Rivera noticed a glow coming from inside and immediately went to his apartment to call the Fire Department. Moments later, the building erupted in flames.

“By the time I came out, it went up,” he said.

Rivera, his girlfriend Myra Santiago and their two children were eventually forced from their rented apartment several doors down from the factory. Like others on the block, they were only allowed to return late in the morning.

Santiago was livid after learning the fire was intentionally set and that the building wasn’t boarded up or secure. She questioned why city officials didn’t heed warnings from some of her neighbors who were concerned about the building’s security.

“Maybe next time they’ll take people seriously,” she said.

Flames were visible from the city’s South Side, across the Mohawk River. Charred pages from the books and periodicals inside the building were lifted into the sky and carried throughout the city as the fire grew.

“It started as a small fire but then it rose real quick,” said Ricky Gonzalez, 15, who was among those evacuated during the fire.

Liberti said the factory fire was the worst the city has seen in more than a decade, but not nearly as crippling as the massive arson fires that consumed buildings of the Mohasco Mills Industrial campus off Lyon Street and Forest Avenue during the 1990s.

Initial reports suggested firefighters encountered difficulties from several non-functioning fire hydrants by the building. However, Liberti said only one of the hydrants wasn’t functioning and that it was properly marked so firefighters could identify it.

The city has been replacing hydrants and underground valves since a fire set by a 13-year-old boy in April 2009 leveled three homes on Mechanic Street. At that blaze, firefighters hooked hoses up to a hydrant and found insufficient pressure.

So far, the city has replaced 30 hydrants and 10 underground valves, with additional repairs to other units. Thane said another 17 hydrants are slated for replacement.

Liberti said there was sufficient water to fight Thursday’s fire. The non-functioning fire hydrant was initially tapped by mistake because a firefighter couldn’t see the paint in the darkness and through the smoke, which enveloped the street.

Amsterdam DPW foreman Ray Halgas said the department had four working hydrants available in all directions of the compass — but he doubted any amount of water pressure could have quickly doused the inferno.

Set for sale

The factory was built by Julius Wasserman and originally housed the Amsterdam Broom Co., which was then one of the premier broom manufacturers in the nation. Amsterdam Historian Robert Von Hasseln said Wasserman’s company was representative of an industry that was among the largest in the city’s industrial past.

At the time, the broom industry was booming in Amsterdam as a result of the plentiful supply of “broom corn” growing along the Mohawk River and its islands. Von Hasseln said the broom industry was such a significant part of the city that the official seal of Amsterdam featured a carpet, a spool of thread, and a couple of brooms.

Wasserman’s business produced a number of highly regarded products during the early 20th century, including the “Gold Bond” and “Brookside” brooms.

But during the 1930s, the advent of vacuum cleaners shrank the broom industry. At the death of Wasserman’s son David in 1957, the factory building was put up for sale.

The Edy Brush Co. of New York City purchased the structure a short time later and established a manufacturing plant there. The business produced a number of paint brushes, rollers and trays that were sold in hardware stores across the region.

But during the late 1970s, Edy Brush Co. began laying off workers. And during the early 1980s, the factory closed down altogether.

Eventually, the property was purchased by Thomas Eliopoulos, a developer and book dealer living in northern New Jersey. The building, which was used for storage, was renamed the X-S Books Inc. and T.E. Enterprises.

In recent years, however, the factory had fallen into disrepair. Leaks in the roof caused one of its floors to bow under the weight of moldering books, while vandals also took their toll on the structure.

Longtime residents of the neighborhood complained the building was infested with vermin and seemed to be a magnet for trespassers. Then in February, the city foreclosed on the 1.1-acre parcel and assumed ownership — one of 175 properties slated for auction in early August.

Tragically, Thane said, the city had almost found a buyer for the old factory. She said a developer expressed interest in purchasing the property and converting it into residential units.

“I had a buyer for this place,” she said, gazing out at the rubble. “Now, it’s just another opportunity that has gone by the wayside.”

Categories: Schenectady County