HUGE FIRE IN WELLINGTON

A fire at the old Wagner Seed and Packing building in the center of Wellington drew Firefighters from multiple departments to assist in bringing the blaze under control.

Wellington Fire Chief Bob Walker said the structure has been abandoned for about 6 or 7 months. “Wager Seed and Packing use to make bird seed and then distribute it throughout the country. The fire was in the three story building and it looks like it started on the first floor and spread up between the second and third floor.”

Next to the three-story building, just to the east, is a two-story structure that concerned the Firefighters. “We were able to cut what we call a Trench Cut and that was going to give us a good defensive stop to the fire right there so it didn’t expand into the next building.” (A trench cut is about two foot wide by about twelve foot long hole that is cut into the roof so that if the fire did spread to the next building Firefighters would be able to hit it with the aerials or the ground monitors.)

Chief Walker said that the heavy wood timbers that construct this building and the design made the fight a challenge. “Along with the timbers there are three floors and in the three floors there are several openings that are very hazardous to our people because the old elevator shafts went up through all three floors in different spots so we weren’t going to allow them to go into the three story building but we did allow them to go into the one story building to do the stop and so far we have been very successful with that.”

As of 2am Chief Walker said that the Firefighters were trying to “cool down” what was left of the burning materials. “There are a lot of burning materials, heavy timbers, still left in the first floor where we had a collapse of the roof. We believe the third floor has collapsed but we are not sure if the second floor has collapsed because we do not have a good visual on it yet.”

People were evacuated occupants from apartments on Depot Street, North Main and some on West Herrick Street. The Red Cross set up temporary shelter in the Village Town Hall as well as a canteen for the Safety Forces. Most of those who were evacuated were allowed to go back into their homes by 2am.

Chief Walker said that his Department received assistance from Oberlin with an aerial, Amherst with an aerial; LaGrange covered their station in case of another call in the area. Carlisle Township Fire Chief Russ Gardner was the Water Supply Officer; he coordinated tankers from Carlisle, LaGrange, Wellington, Rochester, Camden and Wakeman.

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