It was a monster of a fire that threatened a number of nearby structures and endangered the lives of scores of firefighters when flames consumed the R.S. Fought and Sons Feed Mill at Walnut and Railroad streets forty years ago.
“The flames were going a hundred feet into the air,” Gene Cahn remembered during a recent interview at the borough’s firehouse.
“It was unreal,” said Cahn, who was the borough’s fire chief when fire roared through the large building owned by brothers Benjamin and Robert Fought on Sunday May 20, 1979.
“Our biggest problem was all the buildings close to the mill. We had fuel storage tanks, probably half a dozen, at Agway Petroleum Corp. just across the street. There also was Mausteller’s gas station, that was right along the mill. We had several houses and apartment buildings nearby as well,” Cahn said.