Carolyn Schumacher could tell by the look on the emergency responder’s face:
Her hot dog trailer, along with her livelihood, was likely a goner.
As fire ravaged the Housatonic Wire Co. factory building Saturday, Schumacher grabbed a propane tank from the hot dog stand, gathered up the cash she earned during the day on Saturday and got her truck as far down River Street as she could.
“I yelled back: ‘Please save the Weenie Wagon!’” Schumacher recalled Monday afternoon.
It turns out, they did.
More than 100 volunteer firefighters responded to the fire, the smoke from which could be seen miles away.
While the building was completely gutted, and even collapsed in places, Carolyn’s Weenie Wagon trailer remained unscathed.
Schumacher Monday thanked the volunteers who helped keep the trailer safe by spraying it with water.
(Her offer to give the volunteers free hot dogs as a thank you stands, Schumacher said.)
But she also credited a higher power for the miracle.
“The lord had his arms wrapped around it, let me tell you,” Schumacher said.
‘I Smelled Smoke’
Schumacher said that almost two full hours before the first flames appeared in the factory’s windows, she started smelling faint smells of smoke.
But as fire engines blared throughout town Saturday afternoon, Schumacher assumed it was wafting from some far-off fire.
“I just figured it was something else,” Schumacher said.
But, as she closed up shop for the day Saturday — and made a quick pit stop in the factory’s bathroom — Schumacher realized it was actually the factory building on fire.
She didn’t see any smoke while she was inside, but as soon as she got back outside, a passerby yelled to her that he saw fire coming from a second-floor window.
“Within three minutes, the whole second floor was on fire,” Schumacher said. “I couldn’t believe how fast it went.”
She watched as the fire ate away at the vacant factory building. Somehow the smoke blew away from the wagon, and the falling building parts landed inside the exterior walls, not on the front lawn where the Weenie Wagon was parked.
“It’s just amazing,” Schumacher said.
Rebuilding
Schumacher plans to reopen the Weenie Wagon on Thursday — at a new location on Derby Avenue in Seymour.
The pastor at the Seymour Congregational Church at the corner of Broad Street and Derby Avenue offered to allow Schumacher park the trailer in a side lot, and have customers park there as well, Schumacher said.
She’s talking with the health department now about reopening. She has to put in a supply order before she can serve another hot dog.
She’s anxious to get started again, as the days off are a financial hit.
“Every day I miss kills me,” Schumacher said. “But I have my life, and I have my Weenie Wagon.”
