FIRE HITS TALLY HO
Fire chief: building is 'repairable'
By ROB PRICE THE COURIER-ADVOCATE

Flames erupt from the rear wall of Jackie's Tally Ho Restaurant and Bar Thursday morning in top photo. Above, smoke billows around firefighters attacking the flames from the front of the building.

KANONA - A fire Thursday heavily damaged Jackie's Tally Ho Restaurant and Bar, on state Route 53, drawing dozens of area firefighters to the third major fire in Kanona within the past five weeks.

The fire broke out soon after 11 a.m. and emptied the restaurant of about 75 people employed by the social services departments of several western New York counties. The county personnel were participating in a two-day training session, using the Tally Ho as a meeting place, according to Katherine Biehl, commissioner of the Steuben County Department of Social Services.

No injuries were reported, although Kanona Fire Chief Joe Gerych said an unidentified individual believed to be employed at the restaurant was transported to Ira Davenport Hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation.

The fire, Gerych said, was caused by a first-floor coal furnace that overheated and ignited a wall. The flames rose from the ground floor to an attic area, breaking through a rear wall of the building.

PHOTOS BY ROB PRICE

Firefighters from Kanona, Bath and Avoca were on the scene quickly, and subdued the flames within minutes.

"We got a good hit on it," Gerych said. "The potential was there for this thing to be burned right to the ground. We got a lot of water on it real fast, and that's what it needed."

State police and Steuben County Sheriff 's deputies responded to the scene, and Route 53 in the Tally Ho vicinity was closed to traffic as area fire companies arrive. In addition to Kanona, Bath and Avoca's fire companies, fire departments from the Bath VA, Prattsburgh, Howard, Cohocton and Pulteney were present; the Bath Ambulance Corps also dispatched a crew.

Shelly Bentley, assistant director of services for the Steuben County Department of Social Services, said DSS personnel were meeting in a conference room when an employee of the restaurant advised her to lead everyone from the building.

"I said, 'Do we have a fire?' and she said, 'Yes we do,'" Bentley recalled, adding Tally Ho personnel already had called the county 911 service.

" It was wonderfully handled," Bentley said. "People admired the way they handled the situation and themselves. Nobody panicked."

According to the Bath town assessor's office, the owners of record for the property are Douglas J. and Kenneth J. Baer of Dundee. They could not be reached at press time for comment.

The owner of the business, Jackie Sobolewski, stood outside the restaurant, watching as fire crews fought the blaze. She declined to answer questions.

While the building sustained considerable smoke, water and heat damage, Gerych said the Kanona dining institution is not a total loss. "It can be repaired,' he said.

Kanona lost two buildings to fire last month, when flames destroyed Sweeney's Meat Market, on county Route 14, and a barn owned by D&E Trucking, on state Route 53. As with the Tally Ho fire, the earlier fires were traced to heating systems responding to frigid winter temperatures.