Fire damages historical society hours after celebration

By WGAL Staff

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    DAUPHIN, Pennsylvania (WGAL) — Flames damaged the Dauphin-Middle Paxton Historical Society building hours after the organization’s Heritage Day celebration.

Dauphin-Middle Paxton Township Fire Department was dispatched to the building located at 300 Church Rd. around 5:30 a.m. Sunday for reports of smoke in the area. Crews arrived to find a large portion of the structure engulfed in flames, according to Dauphin-Middle Paxton Township Fire Captain Jon Fleming.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

“When we have a large, old building like this there are a lot of factors and a lot of different things we have to look at, so we’re going through those steps right now. As we slowly start to pull things apart, do that investigation, and then we’ll see what the results are and where the facts lead us,” said Fleming.

The fire broke out just hours after the Dauphin-Middle Paxton Historical Society celebrated 250 years since the founding of Dauphin Borough.

“Just hours after leaving the site, I was called that there was a fire at our schoolhouse, so of course it’s just devastating celebrating our heritage yesterday, 250 years,” said Liz Rodda, President of Dauphin-Middle Paxton Historical Society.

Rodda says the building housed artifacts and photographs from generations of community members. She believes most of the memorabilia was lost in the fire.

“I would estimate, just an offhand estimate about 85% of the archived items in here are destroyed,” said Rodda. “We will see if we are able to mitigate some of the photographs and some of the objects but it does not look hopeful.”

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