Syracuse, NY- On Sunday, November 19, 2023, at 4:38 a.m., Syracuse Firefighters were alerted by the Onondaga County 911 Center to a reported structure fire near the corner of Merriman Avenue and Messina Street. Firefighters from Station 3, on Bellevue Ave, arrived on the scene just over 2 minutes and thirty seconds later to find fire engulfing the second floor and attic of a two-and-a-half-story house at 237 Merriman Ave. Firefighters transmitted a signal ‘99’ indicating a working fire.
The house had been the scene of at least one previous fire and was known to be vacant. Based on this information, and the heavy volume of fire, incident commanders made the decision to fight the fire from the exterior. Crews utilized master stream appliances, capable of flowing up to 500 gallons of water per minute, as well as elevated master streams from aerial ladders, capable of flowing over 1000 gallons of water per minute. As they fought the fire, the roof of the house collapsed into the second floor, forcing firefighters to maintain a safe distance from the home in case of further collapse. The fire took approximately 60 minutes to extinguish.
Syracuse Fire Investigators were on the scene working to determine the origin and cause of the fire, both are still under investigation. The home sustained severe damage throughout, due to the fire, as well as the collapse of most of the roof. There were no injuries reported to civilians or to fire personnel.
A total of 38 Fire Department personnel responded to this incident, including command and support staff. Syracuse Fire Department Ambulance, Syracuse Police, American Medical Response, and National Grid also responded to the scene. We thank our partners at the 911 Center, SPD, AMR, and National Grid.