Nearly 20 feet inside the smoke-filled former synagogue, the words of fellow firefighter Darin Lewis stopped David Abell in his tracks:
“I think this is booby-trapped.”
That’s when Abell spotted the trip wire connected to two gallon-sized jugs of gasoline.
Abell recounted on Tuesday the chilling details of entering the building at 117 Jefferson Ave. early Friday morning and discovering it had been wired to kill.
Officials say an arsonist rigged up an elaborate series of accelerants and trip wires inside the unoccupied former house of worship. Then, in the stairwell, the person set a fire — designed, officials believe, to lure and and then harm emergency responders.
“It wasn’t until things settled down when you realized people were trying to kill me — they expected me to die,” Abell said Tuesday. “Our job is inherently dangerous because there’s fire, but the added danger of someone trying to hurt you makes it even worse.”
In all, officials found four 5-gallon cans and four gallon-sized plastic containers filled with gasoline, 20- and-30-pound containers filled with propane and two small containers of butane, Endicott Fire Chief Joseph Griswold said. The containers were found in various parts of the building, and investigators believe the set-up may have been designed to cause the fire to spread from the basement upward, Griswold said.