Taylor Richardson reflects 1 year after historic Hornell fire

HORNELL -- Taylor Richardson remains forever grateful a year after she lost everything.

Richardson was among around 20 Preston Avenue residents who were displaced a year ago Tuesday, when fire ripped through their Hornell neighborhood and burned four structures to the ground while damaging several others.

The fire hit even closer to home for Richardson; it originated in the upstairs apartment of her duplex at 11 Preston Avenue. She was home that Sunday afternoon in November when a friend in Canisteo asked her to come over for some pizza during the Bills game.

"I hemmed and hawed, but I thought I'd go for an hour," Richardson recalled. "I left around 2 p.m. and I believe the fire started around 2:20. I got out just in time."

The first flames of that massive fire may have been flickering upstairs as Richardson walked out the door. The intensity of the blaze when it busted through the house told Hornell Fire Chief Frank Brzozowski that it had been burning for some time before it announced itself and started pouring from the second-story windows.

"This fire seemed to have a little more of a head start than most," Brzozowski said. "That can be anything from what caused it to get going, to the way a lot of people's houses are insulated, which can keep a fire inside without smoke showing or any signs there's a fire in that house until it breaks out, and when it breaks out it's really rolling."

Richardson was in Canisteo by the time she got a text from a friend who lived nearby. There's a fire on your street, read the message.

Richardson immediately thought of her dog Kenzie, a chihuahua terrier mix.

"I told my friend whose house I was at, I'll be right back, I'm going to go grab the dog because if it's even a small fire the fire trucks are going to make her go crazy. Usually I brought the dog with me every time, but I thought I'm only going to be gone an hour, she'll be fine," Richardson said.

"As I came over the hill coming into Hornell, I could see the smoke. Something in my gut just said it was my apartment."

Richardson called the Hornell Police Department on her way into town, which confirmed her house was on fire. She parked her car at the Legion on Seneca Street, as close as she could get in the growing commotion, and rushed towards the apartment she had called home for the last five years.

"When the police officer said there was significant damage, I was thinking maybe there's still hope," Richardson said. "I ran over and I got there just as the whole apartment crumbled."

Kenzie had been trapped inside during the fire, along with three of her cats -- Aurora, Marley and Mona. Several other families lost their pets to the fast-moving blaze, as well as all the possessions in their home. For Richardson, that meant quite literally everything but the clothes on her back, her cell phone, her purse and her car. The flames claimed personal items that couldn't be replaced, such as photos of Richardson and her mother, who had passed away a couple months earlier in August.

Despite the intensity of the blaze, though, the fire did not result in any human fatalities or injuries, either for residents or first responders. There was a few tense moments where several residents were unaccounted for and firefighters were left to wonder if they were inside the burning structures, but some quick legwork dispelled the uncertainty.

The Hornell City School District had set up a staging ground for community donations and a place for impacted residents to gather even as firefighters continued to battle the flames.

"When you have a mutual aid fire and you have a big community devastation like that, (community support) is part of this valley," Brzozowski said. "It's always been great growing up here as a kid. Everybody looks out for everybody around here. It's a very safe community, a very knowledgable community. I had no idea all this was going on until after, that the school system automatically stepped up to the plate, made a place for these people to go, make their phone calls, meet with their insurance companies, start getting the things they needed to get underway. It gave a place for our officers and lead investigators to start talking with these people and try to figure out what happened, make sure everyone was accounted for."

Community donations were moved to the Hornell Community Arts Center the following day. The building was flooded with contributions of clothes, toiletries and household items.

In the immediate aftermath of the fire Richardson stayed with her father, Scott, a longtime fixture of local enforcement who serves as a commissioner on the city's Board of Public Safety. Richardson also had plenty of support from the community.

"My sister set up a Go Fund Me. The amount of people that donated to that just blew me away, as well as the amount of people in the community that just dropped stuff off to my dad's house," Richardson said. "Turning Point helped a lot. The gift cards they got us really helped. I was amazed by the amount of people that helped me and it was amazing to see the community come together like it did. That was awesome."

As luck would have it, Richardson was able to find an apartment on neighboring Washington Street about a month after the fire. She commutes to Bath, where she works as a relief coordinator at the Arc of Steuben.

She doesn't take each day she gets to return home to her apartment for granted.

For Brzozowski, the support in the aftermath of the fire was incredible -- though not surprising.

"The community outpour was outstanding to bring the resources these people needed right out of the chute -- clothes, money, food, whatever they needed, people were offering apartments for them to live in until they could get underway," Brzozowski said. "It was just amazing. We live in a weird time with what's going on in the country, but it's nice to see here in the Canisteo Valley when there's need, people come out. It doesn't matter the circumstance. Kudos to the people and what they did."

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