SKANEATELES --
A day after a fire at an area landmark, it's back open.
Fire crews were called to the tavern at the Sherwood Inn in Skaneateles Thursday afternoon. General Manager Mike Tutor says they don't know how the fire started. He says they heard a strange sound in the tavern fireplace, went outside and saw smoke. The fire, which was in the chimney, was put out and did not spread.
"We're open for business," Tutor said. "This morning we had a professional cleaning company come in and our own staff. We scrubbed, cleaned, vacuumed and did everything we had to do. We did remove all the antique artwork to be cleaned professionally. There was not really smoke damage but damage or dust from the chemicals used to retard the fire."
The Sherwood Inn is 203 years old and Tutor says community members were concerned it would be destroyed by flames. Tutor says at first they thought that the chimney would have to be replaced but it was inspected Friday and it's ok.
Thursday night update:
The restaurant at the Sherwood Inn has re-opened after a late Thursday afternoon chimney fire at the downtown Skaneateles landmark. Staff said the tavern was being cleaned but would reopen soon. Guests at the staying overnight were moved to the inn next door as a precaution. Skaneateles Fire Chief Eric Sell said it did not appear there was any serious damage to the building but that the building's chimney had been condemned and would have to come down.
The Sherwood Inn has been a gathering spot in downtown Skaneateles since it opened in 1807 as a tavern attached to a local stagecoach businesses. Since then it served a temporary hospital for Skaneateles during the influenza epidemic of 1918 and the restaurant and inn have hosted countless guests including former President Bill Clinton.
Crews responding to this afternoon's fire found the flames were confined to the chimney and firefighters had it contained within fifteen minutes.
"We did a second alarm on this fire for the fact it's a 200+ year old structure and I had smoke coming from the eaves," said Fire Chief Eric Sell.
Sell said he is confident only the chimney will need to come down and that the rest of the building was stable.
"The chimney's loose so we're going to condemn the chimney. Village codes came in and determined the chimney was unsafe," said Sell.
For more on the Sherwood Inn's history click here
Updated Thursday, 6:05 pm:
Firefighters were able to keep flames from spreading at the Sherwood Inn.
The fire chief tells CNYcentral the fire was contained to the chimney. The chief says several extra crews were called to the fire because of the age of the building. It's 200 years old, so fire crews handled the situation very delicately.
The building is fine, but the chimney will have to be condemned. The fire chief expects the restaurant and tavern areas to be back open this evening.
Original Story:
Fire crews are on the scene of a fire at a Skaneateles landmark.
Reports of a chimney fire at the Sherwood Inn came in to the Onondaga County 911 dispatch center shortly after 4:00 p.m.
People at the Blue Water Grill across the street from the Inn tell us they can see several fire trucks, but it looks to them like the flames are contained in the chimney.
