ROOSEVELT'S HOME DAMAGED BY FIRE - Hyde Park, Ny - Famous Fires on Waymarking.com

A fire raced through the birthplace of Franklin D. Roosevelt this morning, destroying much of a 75-foot section of the roof and damaging several bedrooms in the oldest part of the historic 35-room mansion.

While 250 firefighters from 10 local fire departments worked through a snowstorm to bring the blaze under control, curators rushed in and out trying to save the house's antique furnishings. They lifted paintings off the walls, grabbed chairs and rolled up rugs, many of which had been in the 156-year-old house since the former President's f ather, James, bought it in 1867.

As flames leaped from huge holes in the roof, a curator tossed a tarpaulin over the bed in which Roosevelt was born on Jan. 30, 1882. Another curator plucked a delicate Dresden chandelier from a firstfloor ceili ng moments before firefighter s ordered the room evacuated for fear the ceiling would collapse .

''It was worse than the worst nightmare,'' said Dixon Freeland, the superintendent. ''There was a moment there when it seemed as if we'd lose the whole thing.''

The house, a national monument maintained by the National Park Service, is visited by thousands of tourists each year. Next Saturday it is to be the site of ceremonies marking the 100th anniversary of Roosevelt's birth.

he cause of the fire was under investigation, but Chief Edward Ferris of the Hyde Park Fire Department said that arson was not suspected. He said the blaze apparently began in the attic and spread to rooms on the third floor just below.

Water cascaded down staircases and about an inch accumulated on the first and second floors, where it froze. Officials said 10 rooms, including Roosevelt's boyhood bedroom, suffered water damage. The wallpaper in those rooms was not considered salvageable. The ceiling collapsed in a bedroom where King George VI of England stayed in 1939.

''None of the furniture is lost forever,'' said Susan Brown, an assistant curator. ''We have a lot to restore in terms of water damage but not as much fire damage.''

One of the first things the curators saved was the Gilbert Stuart portrait of Isaac Roosevelt, the former President's great-greatgrandfather, who was active in the Revolutionary War and was a member of the State Constitutional Convention and a State Senator. They also carried out a portrait of James Roosevelt, a greatgrandfather, who was a merchant, alderman and State Assemblyman, the first of the Roosevelt family to settle in Dutchess County, in 1819.

Both portraits had hung in the spacious, comfortable living room. The curators, with the help of volunteers, stacked the paintings in an adjacent structure called the ''laundry room.''

''We salvaged an incredible amount,'' said Emily Wright, a curator. Other antiques that were carried to safety included an 18thcentury grandfather clock that Roosevelt's parents purchased in the Netherlands in 1881 and a life-size bronze statue of Roosevelt, cast when he was 29 years old.

''We got the word we weren't supposed to go in,'' Mrs. Wright said, ''but we decided to go in anyway, and about 20 of us did. We had help from people I've never seen before and I'm not sure anybody else knows exactly who they all were. Nobody thought the least bit about danger.'' 3-Foot-Tall Potted Palm

Michele Baum, a 24-year-old gardener in the estate's greenhouse, salvaged a 3-foot-tall potted palm that had belonged to Sara Roosevelt. the former President's mother. Miss Baum said she was afraid the exposure to subfreezing temperatures might have killed it.

''One of the guys said a teddy bear from the third floor floated down the stairs to the first floor,'' she said. ''You take such pride in the home and your job - to have something like this happen is a terrible disaster.''

James Whaley, the chairman of the Hyde Park Centennial Commission, one of the groups coordinating the anniversary ceremonies, said: ''The house looks like a scene from 'Dr. Zhivago.' There is ice hanging from the railing and upstairs.''

Chief Ferris speculated that faulty electrical wiring might have touched off the blaze. Duncan Marro, a Park Service spokesman in Washington, said a private contractor had been replacing old wiring in the third floor and the attic. The work has been going on for several weeks, he said.

''The electrical system has always been in bad shape,'' Mr. Marro said. But Sheriff Fred Scoralick of Dutchess County, who is conducting the investigation into the cause of the fire, said there was no indication that the rewiring had anything to do with starting it. ''The old wires are so brittle, they're just past due,'' he said. Broke Out About Midnight

Fire officials reported that the blaze broke out about midnight. William F. Hubbard, the chief ranger at the estate and a volunteer fireman, said an automatic fire detector in the house had sent in an alarm at about 12:15 A.M.

Firefighters chopped through walls and ceiling to reach burning insulation, which continued to flare up long aft er the fire was brought under control around 3 A.M. Firemen returned to the house in midafternoon when a smoldering section of one of the damaged rooms flared up aga in.

But the blaze, which destroyed part of what was originally an early 19th-century country house, did not spread to the two stone wings that Roosevelt added in 1915. In those wings, and untouched by the fire, were the bedroom he used as an adul t, the office he used when the house served as the summer White Hou se, and his books and such memorabilia as the leash and blanket of his dog, Fala.

Mr. Freeland, the superintendent, said the fire would not hold up the centennial celebration. The schedule called for Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr., one of the former President's sons, to lead a tour of the house after services at Roosevelt's grave, which is on the 188-acre estate.

''As far as we're concerned, this will not nix it,'' Mr. Freeland said yesterday. ''We will go on with the graveside services and have the speeches on the portico of the home if it's safe to stand there.'' Heard About It on Radio

Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr., who lives in Poughquag, N.Y., about 25 miles south of Hyde Park, said he heard about the fire when he awoke at 7 A.M. and heard a radio news broadcast.

''It was the center of our family life, our home,'' he said. ''It was my father's home from the day he was born there until the day he was buried there. I think the American public owes a great debt of gratitude to the Park Service personnel who saved practically all the artifacts. For the family, I know I'm grateful to them.''

Before the day ended, the Park Service Historic Preservation staff began supervising the pumping of water from the basement and overseeing the nailing down of plywood over four roofless third-floor rooms. These included a playroom and rooms that belonged to Roosevelt's children when they were young.

Fire-blackened debris will be checked carefully to make certain that nothing important is discarded, Mr. Freeland said. ''The first thing we'll do besides remove water from the floors,'' he said, ''is put the hard hats on and shore up the rooms and the rafters so there's no danger of things falling in.

''We are going to get on with the repairs as soon as possible,'' he added. ''Of all times, this is our 100th year. It is a time that we think is very important, that we get things back even better than they were.''

He said Park Service employees would continue to move artifacts to other buildings and to warm them up, very slowly, since rapid warming would damage them. With Gloved Hands

In the past few weeks, curators have ordered that the handling of any artifacts be done with gloved hands or by trained personnel. But this morning, the furnishings were handled any way they could be.

''Last night, with water running everywhere, and the fire and the smoke, we could not be so careful on how we handled some of these things of beauty,'' said Mr. Hubbard, the chief ranger.

After the fire was out, Miss Brown, the assistant curator, stood outside on the steps crying. 'Everybody is saying that it could be worse,'' she said, ''but if you could see that third floor, I don't know how it could be any worse.''


Source: article

Type of Structure: Private Building Other: President's Roosevelt Birthplace Fire Date: 01/23/1982 Structure status: Still standing building Cause of Fire: Electrical malfunction on the third floor of the home where renovations were in progress at the time of the fire. Documentation of the fire: [Web Link] Construction Date: Not listed

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