Wendy's Black Friday goes up in smoke

Nov. 26—PLATTSBURGH — A stubborn smoky fire at a local fast-food restaurant snarled heavy Black Friday traffic in the heart of a busy commercial district on Route 3 mid-day Friday, but no one was hurt.

"We were paged for a structure fire at this location, Wendy's restaurant," District No. 3 Fire Chief Greg Burnell said.

"Initial reports were they were evacuating the building and had heavy smoke condition in the building."

The first District 3 engine arrived in four to five minutes and encountered heavy smoke conditions in the building and light smoke coming from a rooftop unit (HVAC), according to Burnell, who sent a crew in.

"We weren't exactly sure what was on fire," he said.

"The staff couldn't tell us exactly what was going on. I sent the initial crew in to check to see if we had a kitchen fire or some type of fire inside the restaurant."

No fire was found inside the restaurant's interior despite the heavy smoke conditions.

"Then, we ordered crews to the roof, and found a rooftop unit that was on fire," he said.

"Electrical wiring in the filters had caught fire and burned down into the roof decking of the building. It was out relatively quick, just chasing some smoldering materials through the duct work at that point."

NYSEG cut power and gas to the building.

"We had Town of Plattsburgh Codes on site and the Clinton County Health Department," he said.

"They are going to be closed for awhile. They have significant damage to the building, some water damage and smoke damage as well."

Fire departments who arrived to help District 3 were Morrisonville and South Plattsburgh.

"We had Beekmantown standing by at our Wallace Hill Station and Cumberland Head standing by at our Hammond Lane Station," Burnell said.

Email: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com

Twitter@RobinCaudell