The Bouckville Mill Fire 1931
Firemen Risk Drifts,
Fight $50,000 Blaze
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Oneida, Jan 9. – Six fire departments
made runs of from five to 15 miles apiece along snow-banked roads in
below-zero weather at 2 o’clock this morning to fight fire which destroyed
the Duffy-Mott Company vinegar and cider plant at Bouckville, 15 miles south
of Oneida, causing loss estimated at $50,000.
Hamilton, Madison, Oneida, Oriskany
Falls, Morrisville, Waterville and Deansboro firemen answered the calls and
with 200 volunteers were able to keep the fire from spreading to other
structures in the old village.
Chemical tanks froze up on the run and
the emergency forces drew water from under the ice in the disused Chenango
canal, which formerly afforded navigation between Deansboro and Binghamton.
It was necessary to use 2,100 feet of
hose in a single line to get water to the fire and it froze almost as soon as
it left the nozzle.
The Waterville company was the first on
the scene, within 15 minutes after the fire call was sent in after William
Ball, night watchman at the plant, found the main building in flames. The first firemen took their station
beside the canal and pumped through 1,000 feet of hose to the Deansboro
booster pump, which sent the water the other 1,100 feet to the fire.
The flames went 200 to 300 feet in the
air as the three-story frame structure, surmounted by a water tower set on
cribbing on the roof, was turned into a mighty torch. The fire burned for five hours, destroying
the main building, the Mott Tavern beside it and part of the same property, a
road stand, the boiler plant and the water tower.
Only the fire wall remained standing in
the ruins. The fire companies from
Madison, Hamilton, Oneida and Oriskany Falls thawed out their chemical tanks
in turn in the Bouckville Garage and recharged. They protected other property with their chemical equipment.
Telephone and electric light poles
across the road from the mill were burned and communication and power to the
east were interrupted. The plant stood
beside the New York, Ontario and Western Railroad right of way, and was about
70 years old.
Despite the extreme cold, thermometers
registering 14 below zero at Bouckville, hundreds went to the fire.
The Duffy-Mott Company, Inc., operators
of the mill, headquarters at New York, carried insurance, Louis Meinhold,
Bouckville manager said.
The plant produced 2,000,000 gallons of cider and vinegar
annually and represented one of the old industries of the Cherry Valley
turnpike. There were 60,000 gallons
in stock in barrels, glass jugs and vats.
Second Assistant Chief Frank Cheesman,
and Fire Chief Edward McCully and Joseph McFarland had charge of the Oneida
run.
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