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Recorder/Paul Franz
The top section of 33 Bridge St. in Shelburne Falls was demolished after a fire Sunday night damaged the building beyond repair.
Published: Tuesday, December 11, 2007
SHELBURNE FALLS -- On an icy Monday morning, residents and bystanders huddled in doorways and beneath the Keystone Market awning, staring at what was left of 33 Bridge St. after Sunday night's fire.
On the first floor was the shell of four businesses: Shelburne Falls Coffee Roasters, Trans-itions hair salon, a T-shirt shop owned by Mike Johnson, and Kathleen Reagey's therapeutic massage business.
'It's right dead center in the heart of our community,' Shelburne selectmen's Chairman Joseph Judd said as he surveyed the damage. 'It's like it took a dagger right in the center of it.'
Had there been even a little bit more wind, the fire could have spread and destroyed even more of the Shelburne Falls downtown, Judd said. 'I really believe that in a lot of ways, (firefighters) saved this village.'
As of Monday evening, no cause for the fire had been determined. The state fire marshal's office said the blaze was still under investigation.
About a dozen fire departments answered the call after the blaze broke out about 6:15 p.m. Firefighters stayed throughout the night and into Monday. By late afternoon a crane began demolishing the building.
Many neighboring businesses along Bridge Street, the main commercial street on the Shelburne side of Shelburne Falls, were without power and closed Monday.
In short order, offers of help began to flow in.
Hope and Olive restaurant in Greenfield, whose owners lost a Shelburne Falls business to fire two years ago, is holding a benefit. Maggie Zaccara, a former A Bottle of Bread owner, said her new restaurant is holding an 'emergency' free soup and game night. The first Monday of every month, folks are invited to dine on soup, bread, and desserts, and to bring in games to play. While it's all free, those that come are invited to make donations to worthy causes.
The benefit is from 5 to 8 p.m. on Monday.
Arthur Schwenger, executive director of the Shelburne Falls Area Business Association, silently took a long look at the damaged building Monday morning.
'It's a major disaster for the downtown area,' Schwenger said. 'Something like this affects all the businesses in town.'
'I'm sure the (association) will want to do what they can to help out the businesses affected by this,' he said.
In response to calls from people wanting to help the fire victims, Shelburne Executive Secretary Terry Mosher said selectmen will let people know how they can help after they have a better idea of what is needed.
Had to come down
The blackened walls of the 33 Bridge St., built in 1895, were bowing after the fire and had to come down as soon as possible, said Shelburne Falls Fire Chief Rick Bardwell. Bricks had fallen off the top story, revealing the wooden 'balloon construction' beneath the facade. Balloon framing allows fire to race inside a wall from the first to upper floors without fire stops, which is one reason the fire spread so quickly, Bardwell said.
'The building has to come down. It's totally unsafe,' he said. 'The facade is in danger of falling.'
Firefighters had worked through the night to keep the fire from spreading to adjacent century-old commercial buildings in the heart of the village.
Ladder trucks from Shelburne Falls, Greenfield, Turners Falls and South Deerfield hosed down the rooftops of the other commercial buildings on the block in a successful attempt to prevent the fire from spreading, Bardwell said.
However, water from the fire hoses flowed into the cellars of those neighboring buildings.
'These old foundations were rubble-laid,' he explained. 'So you have water from the fire building flowing into these empty 'swimming pools' -- the cellars of the other buildings.'
He said some of the furnaces in adjacent buildings were under water.
According to Bardwell, the basements have to be pumped out, and electricity would most likely be restored later on today, following an electrical inspection.
Although hot coffee and breakfast fare may have been in short supply on the Shelburne side of the Iron Bridge, the selectmen's meeting room in the Shelburne Town Hall looked like a banquet had taken place. Tables were lined with steam trays that, on Sunday night, had included two types of pasta from the nearby Gypsy Apple restaurant.
'Gypsy Apple put on a feast' for firefighters, said Bardwell. 'We had pheasant,' he said, referring to the restaurant's pheasant cacciatore. 'We got (food) from the Rod & Gun Club, from the Red Cross. We had hot, baked cookies.
'People were fantastic.'
Mosher said town hall was overloaded with phone calls early Monday after Judd sent out a townwide voice mail, telling people about the fire and warning that part of Bridge Street was closed to traffic. She said people came in during the day with more food for the firefighters and others on the scene.
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