OXFORD – Wednesday night, firefighters halted a fire that broke out at one of the historic buildings that once sat along side the Chenango Canal during the 1800s in downtown Oxford.

Oxford Fire Chief Ronald Martin said crews responded at about 9:20 p.m. last night to the commercial storage building located at 10 North Canal Street after a fire was reported in the northeast corner.

Martin said crews arrived to find columns of smoke pouring out the second floor windows and reaching high into the sky. The fire was contained to the corner of the building, but flames crept from the ground level of the first floor inside the wall partitions and began burning up into the second floor before crews brought it under control, he said.

“The guys did a great job of knocking down the fire. This was a good save,” said Martin at the scene. “We didn’t waste time for mutual aid; we didn’t have any time to spare.”