Three-alarm fire in December 1951 gutted Ducillo Building

While searching through The Lakeville Journal photo archives to find holiday pictures from years gone by, negatives turned up that showed in detail a fire on Main Street in North Canaan.

The fire happened on Jan. 31, 1951. We’ve found no witnesses to the fire; but this story appeared in the Feb. 1, 1951, Lakeville Journal and an editorial about fire safety appeared in the following week’s issue. The articles are reprinted exactly as they appeared in the 1951 newspapers. There were no photo credits or bylines listed for either article. The building survived and was refurbished after the blaze.

A three-alarm fire of undetermined origin completely gutted the Ducillo Business Block in Canaan yesterday (Wednesday) morning.

The building owned by Peter Ducillo contains four stores and two apartments: Ducillo’s Bakery, Nicholas’s Luncheonette, Irwin’s Barber Shop and the Tip Top Store. One apartment was occupied by the Ducillos; the other had been vacant since the first of the year.

Apparently emanating from between the partitions  of the building, the fire was discovered in the barber shop by Edward Houston, who had come in for a hair cut a little after 9 a.m. On hanging his coat on a hook at the rear of the shop, Houston saw flames licking under a small door which opened on an area under the back stairs. Investigation disclosed the area to be filled with fire and smoke.

Flames next appeared near the ceiling of the Tip Top Store and were discovered by the shop manager in time to evacuate most of his merchandise. Louis Nicholas, proprietor of the luncheonette and candy shop, felt there was no immediate danger to his stock and did not remove it until it was too late. The barber chairs were salvaged from Irwin’s as were the cases from the bakery which, located in the new concrete section of the building, suffered only smoke and water damage.

Peter Ducillo had gone upstairs from the bakery for breakfast when he heard his wife call from downstairs. Opening the door he was met by a billowing column of smoke. Grabbing only his cat, coat and a package of valuable papers and bonds, he ran downstairs. Everything left in the apartment was completely destroyed.

According to report the building was insured for approximately $60,000 and some of the individual stores also carried insurance on stock. The luncheonette was uninsured, it was stated.

When the alarm was turned in a little before 9:30, the Canaan Fire Department appeared promptly. Finding the fire already far advanced, they called for assistance from Falls Village and Lakeville. The three fire departments worked at the fire all day, keeping the building, the Christ Church lawn and the balconies of the Canfield Hotel soaked with a constant stream of water.

It was felt that the latter building, a good part of which is frame, stood in grave danger and every precaution was taken by the combined fire departments to keep the fire from spreading across the narrow alley which separates the Ducillo block from the Canfield.

Editorial, Feb. 8, 1951

The three-alarm fire in Canaan last week indicates again that this menace is always with us  and always waiting to do damage. Because most of us live and work in one or two story buildings, there is perhaps not the great feeling of personal danger among us that is present in larger towns where obvious fire-traps still exist. But personal danger remains in direct proportion to the carelessness that exists. And the chance for property damage is perhaps even more possible in our small towns and countryside than in larger places.

This is not the fault of our fire companies, but the fault of ourselves. Our towns, so far as we know, have no fire safety regulations and many of us have grown careless. The state has a general fire code which is supposed to be enforced by local fire marshals, but even if this were 100 percent enforced, which we do not think it is, many fire hazards lie outside of this code and are self-created, so to speak.

Attics and cellars have a tendency to get overloaded with paper and rags, as we know from personal experience. Chimneys and heating units are not checked frequently enough, and elementary precautions are not always taken when fire is present.

We never think it is going to happen to us — until it does. Speaking personally again, we think we need reminding of all these things as much as the next man, and if someone who really knew came around periodically to our home or shop and bawled us out for permitting dangerous conditions to exist, we probably would clean them up faster than we do now. And so, we think, would everybody else in town. We feel, in other words, that a regular procedure on a town-wide level of fire prevention would pay real dividends in fewer fires.

If the Lakeville Firemen, or the Hose Company of any other area town, could find time to make, say, annual inspections, and show the rest of us where we go wrong and how to play safe, we, for one, would cooperate and we think most people would. For it would be beneficial to everyone in the communities involved. And probably the extra time spent by the firemen would mean less time fighting fires.

It’s mandatory in big cities. It could be voluntary here — and just as valuable.