Marcella’s fire may be costly
Owner: No way to replace appliances
Fire investigators are scrutinizing a Tuesday morning blaze that damaged a section of an appliance warehouse owned by businessman John Marcella.
Marcella said the facility at 810 Crane St., his biggest scratch-and-dent warehouse, held upwards of 1,400 appliances, some of which he had been waiting for months to be delivered because they are in such short supply.
“It’s going to be a major mess because all those people waiting for deliveries, most of it comes out of that warehouse, I don’t want to know what we’re going to do,” added Marcella. “You know the main problem is? I can’t replace the products. There’s no availability.”
Marcella explained many appliances are hard to get because of the COVID -19 pandemic and a variety of other issues, including shuttered factories and long waits for parts from China and South Korea.
“They all have back orders and we waited months for a lot of that merchandise to come in,” he said.
The businessman said he received a call around 7:30 a.m. from a company driver who smelled smoke when he went to the Crane Street building to pick up freight.
“The next thing, about 20 minutes later, I get a call to say that fire’s coming out of the roof,” Marcella said. “I’m trying to find out how bad the damage is but they told me how much water they put in there.”
Assistant Fire Chief Don Mareno said someone walked into the the Fire Station 3 on Third Avenue a block from the Crane Street warehouse and announced that the facility was on fire. After that, the phone calls started coming in, he said.
Mareno said fire crews found heavy smoke coming from the middle of warehouse of the 3-story structure.
He said the business sustained smoke and water damage. A fire lieutenant suffered minor injuries.
So far, the fire’s cause is unknown, Mareno said.
Last month, the Schenectady County Metroplex Development Authority and Better Community Neighborhoods Inc. announced that the appliance center in Schenectady ’s Mont Pleasant neighborhood would undergo a $250,000 renovation.
The upgrades included a new glass storefront, windows, roof, signage and landscaping to the building at the gateway to the struggling Crane Street business district.
On Tuesday, Marcella said they it was unclear how the fire might affect plans to proceed with the planned facelift for the warehouse. Besides the appliance center, Marcella’s also has another warehouse across the street as well as a giant showroom on Broadway and another store in Clifton Park.