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100 people fight major blaze in Arcadia The Newark Volunteer Fire Dept. was dispatched by Wayne County 911 at 2:56 Sunday morning, for a fully involved structure fire on Welcher Road.
Fire Chief Doug Velte was the first fireman on the scene, and seeing of the huge size of the fire, he immediately called for assistance from 10 other fire departments. More than 100 volunteer firefighters responded within minutes with their equipment and personnel. Fire Depts. responding were East Palmyra, Lyons, Fairville, Sodus Center, Marbletown, Phelps, Port Gibson, Marion, and Sodus, which sent people, tankers and other equipment to the Welcher Road fire scene. Manchester Fire Dept. was called to the Newark Fire Station for stand-by duty. The Newark-Arcadia Volunteer Ambulance responded to the scene; there were no injuries reported, according to Chief Velte. The Wayne County Cascade truck responded to refill numerous air bottles. The building ablaze was about 100 ft. x 415 ft. according to Velte, who was concerned for the safety of firefighters, with the possibility of fertilizer plant residue inside the structure. Wind was not a problem, but Velte has notified the DEC to check for possible ground contamination from the fertilizer residue and vast amounts of water poured onto the fire. Dick Colacino, Public Information Officer for the Newark Fire Dept., said the fire is being investigated by the Wayne County Sheriff's Dept. and the Wayne County Fire Investigation Team. A neighbor living across from the structure placed the emergency call to 911. Chief Velte said about 750,000 gallons of water were used on the fire. The newly installed water system was used for the majority of water supply of the Arcadia Water District. Additional water was transported from Village of Newark hydrants from the east end at VanBuren Street, and from the west end at North Main Street at Pearl Street. (Photo by John Zornow) Copyright
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