Eyewitness: Myrtle Street Warehouse Fire Smokes Neighborhood Behind DiTondo's

Myrtle Street Warehouse Fire Smokes Neighborhood Behind DiTondo's

While Buffalo Rising isn't known for siren-chasing reporting, when a smoke cloud billows near headquarters you grab the camera and run out the door.  And billow they did--this was a three-alarm fire.

Returning smelling like a boy scout campfire, with my voice an octave lower from the smoke, I got some decent pix to share.

Although this fortunately happened after hours for DiTondo's, just down the street Chef's was hopping, and several customers with Chef's-happy tummies came out the door to some unexpected excitement.

Walking by Chef's, I spotted a couple of waitresses--cute as apple pie--peering out the window to check out the action.  They waved, and when I gestured that I'd like to take their picture they giggled like school girls and disappeared from the window.  Several news organizations had parked their equipment in front of DiTondo's, and were using the restaurant as a backdrop for standups.

One of the first people I talked to on site was Kevin Brautlacht, a freelance photographer who specializes in fire photos--some quite striking.

It seemed that the whole neighborhood was out to see what was happening--I even found a few young Buffalo Rising fans who wanted their picture taken.

Although the warehouse that caught fire has an address of 188 Myrtle Street, much of the firefighting action was happening from Swan Street.

The fire was near the intersection with Cedar Street

To get more details about the fire, I went looking for the command post to find "Chief" Lombardo--and made my first inter-city faux pas.  In RaChaCha, we call the head of the fire department "Chief," and I know Rochester's Chief Caufield fairly well.  But I got some double-takes from the firefighters when I went asking for "Chief" Lombardo, and quickly learned that in Buffalo it's "Commissioner."

Despite the open-mouth-insert-foot moment, Commissioner Michael Lombardo was quite gracious and friendly, and gave me what details he had about the fire.

It started late in the afternoon, in the vacant warehouse--formerly Community Steel--at 188 Myrtle.  Although unused, it apparently had some tar paper stored inside.

Between the tar paper stored inside, and the burn-through of the roof, the fire generated a lot more smoke than would normally be the case for its size.  It was dark smoke, as well--some of the water streams seemed to be entering a solid wall of it.

The Commissioner was using his resources well.  Multiple crews and huge streams of water were attacking the fire from all sides.

One of the pumpers even had an American Flag on the back--great to see it waving behind Buffalo's heroes.

Commissioner Lombardo told me that there was no information yet as to cause--that the fire marshall is looking into it.  He believes that the remnants of the building will likely have to be demolished.

Fortunately, the adjacent buildings, some with some good architectural character, were protected from the fire by the prompt and overwhelming action brought to bear to fight the blaze.  However, the Buffalo News is reporting that there is danger to the adjacent buildings if the burned building should collapse.

Fortunately, according to the Buffalo News, there have been no injuries reported in connection with the fire.

Special thanks to Jonathan Gorczyca for assistance with photo downloads.