Vehicle fire reported in DeKalb’s Frontier Communications garage

DeKALB – DeKalb firefighters on Wednesday responded to a vehicle fire inside a maintenance garage near the DeKalb airport.

Authorities responded to a report of a burning smell in the maintenance garage at 2120 Pleasant St., owned by local telecommunications provider, Frontier Communications.

Crews from the DeKalb Fire Department saw water flowing from a sprinkler system in the garage when they arrived at 6:11 p.m. Wednesday, according to a news release from the department. Emergency crews entered the smoke-filled garage as they worked to establish connection to the water supply to fight the fire.

The fire was located coming from a vehicle inside, and was extinguished in about 20 minutes, authorities said.

Damages were estimated to be about $165,000, according to the news release.

Fire Chief Mike Thomas said the presence of the sprinkler system was helpful to crews responding to the fire.

“It saved the day, for sure,” Thomas said. “It kept the fire to a minimum. But it created a lot of smoke.”

Thomas said that because of the large size of the building, clearing smoke was a challenge.

No people were inside the garage at the time of the fire, authorities said. No injuries were reported to firefighters or emergency personnel.

A mobile ventilation unit was requested by DeKalb firefighters as they worked to clear the smoke.

Firefighters responded to two other medical calls in the city as the incident occurred, authorities said.

The cause of the fire hasn’t yet been determined, though the incident remains under investigation by the DeKalb Fire Department.

“We do know the fire originated in the vehicle there,” Thomas said.

The DeKalb Fire Department was assisted by agencies including from Cortland, Sycamore, Genoa-Kingston, Maple Park and New Milford.