Cooperstown News Bureau

COOPERSTOWN - Fire investigators said they believe Wednesday's fire at the Clara Welch Thanksgiving Home on Grove Street in Cooperstown was caused by a propane space heater in the basement of the building.

The blaze destroyed the local landmark, which was assessed at $1,047,700. None of its 13 residents was there, because the facility had been undergoing a $4-million-to-$5-million renovation since September.

Lyle Jones Jr., Otsego County's Emergency Services coordinator, said late Friday afternoon that investigators think the fire started in a corridor area in the basement of the building.

"Down there, we found a propane-fired salamander-type heater," Jones said.

Jones said the joint investigation by state fire investigators, the Cooperstown Fire Department, the Cooperstown Police Department, Nils Anderson, facilities manager for the Thanksgiving Home, and his office points to that heater as the source of ignition.

The heater is owned by Andrew R. Mancini Associates of Endicott, general contractor for the renovation job, Jones said. The investigation is continuing, and the heater will be analyzed to determine whether it malfunctioned, he said.

Insurance investigators with the Chubb Group, which insured the Thanksgiving Home, will likely conduct their own investigation, he said.

"I think we'll probably have investigators from companies that insure the general contractor and the subcontractors in there, too," Jones said. "It's going to take awhile to sort this out."

Jones said that while he cannot say with finality that the heater was left on unattended Tuesday night, some workers who left the job site Tuesday reported seeing it on.

"There was a subcontractor laying tile in there, and the central heating system wasn't on," he said. "It wasn't a cold night and probably would have stayed about 50 degrees in there, but some adhesives work better when it's warmer," he noted.

Meanwhile, the Thanksgiving Home's board of directors has decided to rebuild the stately home on the same site, according to Administrator Pat Donnelly.

"We want it to be as much like the original as possible," she said.

Board President Jane Forbes Clark has met with architects, Donnelly said, and plans call for rebuilding the 15,000-square-foot building by next April.

Kurt Ofer and Teresa Drerup of Altonview Architects, who designed the renovation, will also design the new building, she said.

The Thanksgiving Home's residents will continue to live at the Otesaga while their home is rebuilt.

Donnelly said residents have been coping with the loss of their home by reminiscing about happy days they spent there. They're looking forward to returning to the site, when the Thanksgiving Home is reconstructed, she said.

Jones said that Andrew R. Mancini Associates, excavator Scott Ubner and the Leatherstocking Corp. had been very helpful during the three-day investigation.

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Tom Grace can be reached at grace@ascent.net or (607) 547-2431.