What started out to be a usual Saturday morning at the Potsdam fire station ended up being a very busy day for firefighters. Fire Chief Justin Perry, firefighter Randy Webster and Paid fire drivers Bob Crowe and Bob Pierce were having a firehouse breakfast. At 07:37 am Potsdam PD notified Potsdam fire that an employee had arrived at Community Bank on Market street and was reporting the fire alarm was going off. Potsdam fire responded immediately with Engine-49 and Tower-5. As Engine-49 was arriving at the front of the building Chief Perry had started his 360 walk around of the building and reported smoke showing. Engine-49 grabbed the hydrant in front of 75 Market street and laid out and set up at the side of the building. Tower-5 entered the parking lot and went to the rear of the building to access the roof. Smoke was visible pushing out the vents along the side of the building. Chief Perry established command and requested mutual from West Potsdam, West Stockholm, Norwood to the scene with manpower and Parishville to standby at Potsdam station. Also a request for National Grid and St Lawrence Gas to secure the utilities.
The building housed a bank and multiple businesses, smoke was pushing from vents on the sides of the building with no visible fire. Firefighters started forcing multiple doors and searching for the seat of the fire. Both of Potsdam fire’s thermal imaging cameras were put to use. Engine-49 deployed three 1-3/4 lines to the entry points. The fire was located in a utility room and was quickly knocked down. Once the fire was knocked down an extensive overhaul operation began. The room of origin had extensive heat and smoke damage with smoke damage throughout the rest of the building. Once overhaul was complete Chief Perry cleared Engine-49 to return to service and Rescue-14 with manpower would remain on-scene to assist the St Lawrence County Fire Investigation team.
During the structure fire Parishville fire responded to an alarm at the Hop, 3 Market Street. The alarm was set off by workers doing construction. Shortly after returning to service Engine-49 was out the door again to 43 ½ Market St. That call was the result of a glass container containing melted candle wax breaking on a burner on a gas stove. As firefighters were clearing 43 ½ Market street a call came in for SUNY Potsdam, Knowles Hall. Engine-49 responded to the scene and the call was determined to be a faulty detector. At 13:41 Engine-49 was on the road again to SUNY Potsdam for another alarm activation followed by a run to Clarkson University Woodstock Village for what turned out to be burnt food on the stove. All Potsdam equipment including the crew at Community bank returned to service at 14:27.
Potsdam Rescue and Potsdam PD also assisted at the Market Street fire. Potsdam Rescue provided a standby crew as well as provide assistance to Potsdam PD with traffic control. A section of Market St. had to be closed due to fire apparatus and LDH hose. With the Maple St bridge being closed it made dealing with traffic difficult. Both agencies did a great job in keeping the street closed and diverting traffic.