Syracuse, N.Y. — A freak fire at a Syracuse liquor store recently left firefighters and the store’s owner scratching their heads over how a display case caught fire in the middle of the store.
On Feb. 5, fire broke out at Geddes Liquor and Wine at 1021 W. Genesee St. The store sustained no structural damage and no one was inside the store at the time of the fire.
So what caused several cartons of vodka and whiskey to burst into flames?
It’s sunlight, firefighters said.
“I couldn’t believe it,” said Jairaj Patel, the store’s owner. “I never thought something like this could happen.”
Video footage from inside the liquor store shows two cartons — one of Pinnacle vodka and another of Ten High whiskey — suddenly burst into flames.
Is it really possible for sunlight to cause such a fire? Yes
Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard asked a Syracuse University professor who is an expert in the physics and chemistry of combustion to help explain it.
Ben Akih-Kumge, a professor in the university’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, said there could be many ways.
Every fire needs three components to start: a fuel, an oxidizer and a heat source, Akih-Kumge said. Cardboard and alcohol can be the fuel, oxygen is the oxidizer, and sunlight is the heat source.
Since the store’s main commodity is alcohol, the ethanol that evaporated into the air could be a factor that caused the fire.
“There can be some concentration of fuel in gaseous form in the atmosphere just because of spillage and evaporation and many other things,” Akih-Kuge said. “If you have open alcohol in your store, you may have increased the vapor in the air, but you also have liquid available.”
Akih-Kumgeh said alcohol, a liquid, is easier to burn than a solid because the liquid can easily turn to vapor.
Cardboard is a poor conductor of heat, so heat can be concentrated in one area and the temperature can rise in that spot, Akih-Kuge said.
Sunlight focused on cardboard can trap that energy in one place for a long time, he said. Then the temperature can rise enough to ignite that cardboard with the air surrounding it.
“If you heat a solid, it can turn into a gas, and that gas is a fuel,” Akih-Kuge said. “Then if that gas mixes with oxygen and has heat, it can start burning.”
The store owner said the store always makes sure to get rid of liquor bottles that are broken or open before putting them on display or on shelves when receiving shipments. According to state law, they cannot keep or sell open bottles, he said.
Akih-Kumgeh said liquor stores can have fuel fumes in the air even if they are cleaned up or removed after a spill. Money increases based on how many bottles are opened or based on what spillage occurs, he said.
If there are combustible vapors near the cardboard and the cardboard heats up, both can contribute to starting a fire, Akih-Kumge said.
“Fuel is fuel,” he said. “It doesn’t discriminate.”
Everything was captured on video
Patel and his family members – who help run the liquor store – were watching the store’s video footage and were stunned to see the fire break out. The store was closed at the time of the fire.
Around 8:30 a.m. that day, the video shows sunlight shining brightly on cardboard boxes in the store. Slowly, plumes of smoke can be seen curling and rising into the air from the boxes.
Soon, smoke spreads throughout the shop and two boxes placed next to each other can be seen smoldering, their corners blackened.
About 35 minutes later, flames broke out.
The flames quickly began to spread from box to box. The flames then moved from the carpet as the boxes broke, falling to the floor. The fire engulfed three more display cases, all in the middle of the floor.
As the flames grew, bottles in the store broke, setting off an alarm and alerting the police.
Shortly before 10:30 a.m., police responded to the call, found the fire in the middle of the store and called the fire department, firefighters said.
When fire crews arrived, thick smoke was billowing from the store.
Patel said the store was not supposed to open before 12 noon that Sunday.
Patel said their alarm system alerted his brother-in-law, who then called him to say something was going on at the store. Then they checked the cameras.
But that day, the camera was turned off by the heat from the fire and the view of the store was obscured, Patel said.
Patel’s brother-in-law called a store regular who lived nearby, and Patel called the manager of the Dollar General near the liquor store. They were both told the same thing: the fire station is in front of their store.
Everyone rushed to West Genesee Street, hoping the entire store wasn’t on fire.
“I said, ‘Oh my gosh,’ because when the liquor store burns down, it’s all gone,” Patel said.
It took firefighters 10 minutes to bring the blaze under control and 20 minutes to fully extinguish the flames, said District Chief Matthew Kreiner, a fire department spokesman.
Once the fire was extinguished, Kreiner said fire investigators were able to rule out all the intentional and accidental causes the department typically finds. They hypothesized that it had something to do with the way the sun shines through window glass.
The video then confirmed that hypothesis, Kreiner said.
Walking around the store recently and surveying the damage, Patel said they feel lucky even though the store is closed for the next two or three months for repairs.
“We can handle 2-3 months, but it could have been worse,” Patel said. “If we were closed for a year, maybe two, the store wouldn’t survive.”
Staff writer Darian Stevenson covers breaking news, crime and public safety. Have a tip, story idea, question or comment? You can find her at [email protected]
