Raging Fire Has Oneonta

Lanes’ Future In Doubt

Avid bowlers may be pursuing their sports in Sidney, Norwich or even Van Hornesville after a raging fire gutted the Holiday Lanes on Oneonta’s Southside in the early morning hours of Friday, April 9.

The Oneonta Fire Department received the call at 1:30 a.m., and fought the blaze with the help of multiple fire departments until 5 a.m., Fire Chief Mike Mancini reported.

With the Town of Oneonta’s water system not expected to be completed until later this year, the big challenge was feeding water to aerial trucks from Stamford, Sidney and the OFDs, Mancini said.

One station was set up near the Susquehanna River’s Southside dam, and another at a pond on Henderson’s Farm, across from Lowe’s.

The first report something was awry was when a burglar alarm went off, said the chief. When troopers arrived to investigate, they saw the fire underway.

“It was mostly defense,” said Mancini. “The first arriving engine crew went to the southwest corner of the building, and proceeded with a pretty good surgical attack from the outside,” cutting a hole in the steel shell and pouring in water.”

Teams then worked their way around the building, cutting holes in the walls and pouring in water. When it was over, the steels beams were intact, but it appeared the lanes and pin-setting equipment had been destroyed.

For the past decade, Oneonta Lanes LLC has been owned by Ashish Patel, Woodbridge, N.J. He could not be reached to determine if he plans to replace the business, closed for much of the past year due to COVID.