Just 15 minutes before the start of their weekly board meeting, the Morgan-Manning House caught on fire.  

On Jan. 14, the Morgan-Manning House Board of Trustees President Scott Hunsinger was on his way to the historical site like any other Tuesday night when he received a call saying there was a fire.  

“My father-in-law, who is a former fire chief of Brockport, called me as I was walking out of the door letting me know,” Hunsinger said. “I got to the house and saw the smoke, connected with a couple other board members, found out their side and that was the beginning of a very long evening.” 

While there is still an ongoing investigation, the cause was identified as an electrical fire that started in the basement. 

When the Brockport Fire Department arrived at the scene, Fire Chief Tim Smith saw light smoke before realizing how big this fire was.  

“To be standing in front of it and seeing the smoke pour out the windows as the fire progressed was an almost unsettling feeling, “Smith said. “We thought that we only had a small fire in the basement. I told the crews to try to be extra careful, as I knew the structure was a museum and much of what was inside was extremely rare if not irreplaceable. Our goal is to always minimize damage to any structure, be it fire damage, water damage or damage caused by fire suppression efforts.” 

Fire departments across 13 local cities were called as additional backup to help control the situation. Smith said “manpower” was crucial to fighting this fire because of the extremely cold weather that night.  

“The air bottles that our members use last anywhere from 20 to 35 minutes before the firefighter needs to come out and change the bottle before they can go back to work,” Smith said. “Once members swap their bottles two times, they need to be checked out by a medic to make sure they are not stressing their bodies to the point of injury, which comes much faster in extreme temperatures.  The extra units called into the scene were to help make up that manpower that was being checked out in rehab and not slow down fire suppression efforts.” 

Hunsinger was on the sidelines watching the firefighters work to put out the fire. He, similarly to Smith, thought they were small flames.  

“We thought it was just going to be quick, you know,” Hunsinger said. “It was going to be put out and that was going to be the end of it. Slowly, we started noticing that they were tapping and they were sawing into the roof. There were people going in and out a lot, and then we started to see smoke and flames intensify.” 

The Church of Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary willingly opened its doors to those who were in the house and fighting the fire. In addition, local businesses like Dunkin’ Donuts, Perri’s Pizza, Dominos, and others sent food for all those helping and in the church that night.  

While they had hoped the fire would be contained soon, it lasted for hours.  

“At one point, fire departments went from firefighting offensively to defensively and I had never realized the scope and strategy that was used in playing against the fire,” Hunsinger said. “So, when they told us they were going defensively, that wasn’t a good thing. By the time it got to 9:30, 10 o’clock, we were told the fire had spread and if the center section loses stability, that the entire house was going to go. At about 11 o’clock, the fire wasn’t under control yet. At that point, I walked home praying that it wasn’t going to fall in.” 

According to Brockport Fire District Public Information Officer Christopher Martin in the Westside News article, the scene was secure and all crews were sent home just before 12:45 a.m. 

Hunsinger was uncertain what he and the rest of the board would wake up to. 

“It was something out of Frozen and Friday the 13th,” Hunsinger said. “There’s this gigantic, burned building, but at the same time all the water they had to put it out with, plus the weather, it was all frozen inside. There are icicles all over the place. You’re dealing with the smoke, the intense smell from the fire and the necessary damage the fire department had to do when they were fighting the fire itself.” 

The state of the house did not deter Hunsinger or the executive committee from coming up with the next steps for this historic landmark. 

“We were committed early on to restoration and rebuilding,” Hunsinger said. “There wasn’t a doubt in our minds. I think it’s the heart of Brockport. It brings people together. It’s just something you can appreciate on many levels. So, we started going through what the plan would be.” 

The process of restoration for the Morgan-Manning house will not happen overnight, but about a month and a half in, some progress has been made. 

“When I was in the house last, floors had been removed and areas of existing asbestos had been identified,” Hunsinger said. “A plan of attack for those rooms is developed and will be put into play once the investigation is done, then we can figure out where we’re going from there.” 

Although the community is eager to begin the starting phases of this process, they want to respect the investigation. 

“You’re going to hear people speculate because social media is a dove and dragon,” Hunsinger said. “There’s a lot of good people out there that had information, but it’s all a part of an ongoing investigation. We as a board didn’t want to soil the investigation.” 

Updates about the Morgan-Manning House can be found on their website https://www.morganmanninghouse.org/