Fire Licks at the Brackney Inn…Again

May 14, 2022 UPDATE: Authorities say an early morning fire on May 9 at the Brackney Inn was the result of arson and that a suspect is in custody. Read more about the findings here.

In October of 2017, the Brackney Inn, a popular bar and restaurant which sits on the borders of New York and Pennsylvania was engulfed in fire and an entire community was left in shock.

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Around 4:00 a.m. on the morning of October 20, 2017, a call was made to report smoke coming out of the apartments located above the bar and restaurant. Fire crews were dispatched to the Brackney Inn on Brackney Hill Road in Susquehanna County and while they were able to contain the fire to the apartments and save the bar and restaurant, the damage was significant.

According to the owner, the October 2017 fire was ruled accidental and a space heater was to blame. Months of hard work went into re-building and getting everything back up to code. All that was left to be done before the Brackney Inn could re-open was to finish the bathrooms and do some minor touching up. The end was finally in sight.
And then, the bottom dropped out.

On June 16, 2018, just eight months after the destructive apartment fire, another fire started, this one in the kitchen and this fire sent the entire Brackney Inn up in a fully engulfing blaze. The community was left in shock. Again.

Two devastating fires in two short years.

Brackney Inn owner Greg MacBlane considered calling it quits and not reopening but he pressed on with clean up and rebuilding and 17 months after the second fire, the doors to the Brackney Inn were once again thrown open. The community gathered in a massive show of support and a line of people snaked out the door.

And then, another fire call went out.

In the early morning hours of Monday, May 9, 2022, fire crews were dispatched to the Brackney Inn for another fire and once again, a community collectively held its breath, hoping for the best but fearing the worst. After all, the Brackney Inn doesn't have a very lucky track record when it comes to fires but perhaps that luck has changed.

While no fire is ideal, a small and easily contained porch fire is much more desirable than an entire business being engulfed in flames for the third time. Thankfully, a small porch fire is all that it was. Within minutes of Silver Lake Fire and EMS arriving on the scene, the fire was contained and the additional crews from Broome County who were responding were pulled back. The Brackney Inn was spared from going up in a blaze for the third time.