June 29, 2026
The Hornell Fire Department reports that there were two fires on Sunday. The first fire was a car fire on Canisteo Street in Hornell, not far from the electric company’s substation. “The car was fully engulfed when it’s arrived,” said Hornell Fire Chief Frank Brzowski. “A nearby power pole was scorched and that was close to a building. That building was evacuated and there was no damage to the building. The fire was extinguished thanks to a quick response from the fire department. The fire is under investigation. The car and the electric pole suffered damage but there was no damage to the building. Also, there were no injuries.”
The second fire that firefighters had to deal with was at the Ben Weitsman facility. That fire was called shortly after 2:00pm Sunday. “Original reports were that the structure was on fire,” Brzowski stated. “However, the fire was actually in the rubbish pile in the back of the Weitsman facility, where they keep scrap cars and metal. When the first units arrived, that fire was burning fiercely. “We called for mutual aid from South Hornell and North Hornell fire departments due to the fact that the fire was an impingement to residents nearby,” Brzowski said. “We wanted to make sure the fire was contained. So we had protection units on both sides for any embers or sparks going towards those residences. That fire was gotten under control quickly by the first arriving units. We were there for quite some time, doing overhaul, just due to the amount of scrap and metal and debris that was in there. We had to sift through it to get it all put out. The fire was contained in about 90 minutes. Units returned to service about two hours after that. We’re not sure what caused that fire and it’s still under investigation, because there was so much product and debris and rubbish in there. We were back there this morning, looking things over,” Brzowski stated. There were no injuries in that fire.
