Rochester family regroups as blaze destroys heart of processing operation
By Mike Ramczyk
Correspondent
As late as 4 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, public works officials and Village of Rochester fire personnel blocked off a stretch of Highway D from downtown Rochester to Heritage Road.
What happened throughout most of the day brought out a firefighting army to Ela Orchard, 31308 Washington Avenue.
“It’s been a family orchard here since 1922,” owner Edwin Ela said Tuesday in front of black soot and rubble from what used to be the orchard’s signature barn.
“It was the iconic landmark of the business,” Ela said. “It was our cold storage for apples, cider pressing room and sales room. We have our apple grading equipment and several hundred bushels of apples.”
Rochester Volunteer Fire Company Chief Jack Biermann said Wednesday the two-alarm fire utilized equipment and manpower from 19 area fire departments. The cause remains under investigation, Biermann said, and he estimates damage to be in the range of $500,000.
The fire was noticed around 9 a.m. Tuesday morning, as Ela and others were across the road for a weekly meeting.
“My wife looked across the road and saw the flames,” Ela said. “We were in another house that’s part of the property. My wife called 911, and it didn’t take long until the entire building was up in flames. There was a haymow up above; fortunately we haven’t lost any livestock. The hay created quite the mess. That’s the reason they called out so many fire departments.”
Ela said there were fire trucks lined up from “the village limits past our driveway,” a stretch of more than a mile.
“We have some insurance,” Ela said. “We’ll have to find a different way to go forward with our apples this coming year.”
A long, winding gravel road cuts up a small hill for roughly a tenth of a mile from Highway D to the Ela home, and the apple-processing barn was located behind it.
Smoldering stone and wood was all that was left of the barn Tuesday afternoon around 4:30, as Ela, his cousin and business partner Bob Willard, and Willard’s son and daughter, tried to pick up the pieces.
Willard’s son, Ben, said the barn stood since 1907.
As Willard and his children walked down the driveway, he said they were heading to the road to take down the Ela Orchard sign.
“We’re going to be out of business for awhile,” he said.
Ela said the orchard has been successful through many generations of customers.
“We sell until the apples are gone every year, and that might have been another six months,” Ela said. “Thankfully, the haymow was not full of hay, and the barn was not full of apples, so it could’ve been worse.
“It’s just kind of astonishing,” Ela added. “I think you’re in shock when something happens like this. You can’t cry over spilled milk. I tend to react more in a day or two than I am right now.”
As of Friday morning an online fundraiser for the family had raised more than $17,000 with a goal of $25,000. The Facebook campaign is available by clicking here: Ela Orchard Fundraiser.
For a complete version of this story see the this week’s editions of the Waterford Post and Burlington Standard Press.
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