'I will make it happen': Field of Horrors owner vows to rebuild after fire

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BRUNSWICK - Field of Horrors Owner David Mulinio plans to rebuild the three haunted houses destroyed in a Monday fire better than they were before.

Three of the five haunted houses located at the 100 Farrell Road attraction - Insanity, Return of Mummy's Curse, and Condemned Manor - were consumed in the electrical fire, Mulinio said. Spiegletown Fire Chief Dean Rysedorph said an electrical problem caused the fire and Mulinio suspects it happened when an employee was carrying out annual maintenance to prepare for opening day in September.

Each July, Mulinio said an employee repairs wires around the facility that have been chewed by mice during the off-season.

He said one of his employees was at the venue on Monday completing the work and believes the fire started after he flicked on a generator.

"We find out where the cracks are, we repair the wiring. When he hit the generator, a spark must have ignited the burlap that's in the building," Mulinio said.

Rysedorph said he received a call from the employee about the fire at 2:14 p.m. and when he arrived a minute later, about half of a 150-foot-long building, containing the interconnected haunted houses, was engulfed in flames.

Mulinio sprays the facility with about $5,000 worth of fire retardant just before opening day every year to make them more resilient. The buildings had not been sprayed when they caught fire Monday.

Mulinio called the destruction "heartbreaking," but he sees a potential for improvement. 

He is now working to give his customers three brand new haunted houses before Field of Horrors opens this fall. Mulinio said the buildings were uninsured and reconstruction will be expensive, but cleanup has already begun. He expects construction to start in two weeks.

"I will make it happen. I don't know how I'm going to make it happen, but I will figure it out," he said.

Part of the upgrades Mulinio wants to implement have to do with making the haunted houses more resistant to such fires. He said he has a new perspective on safety and wants to replace the old wooden walls with steel. He said the fire started around 2:00 p.m. and it took about an hour for the buildings to be destroyed.

"These houses burnt too quickly," he said.

Mulinio wants to have all three buildings completed for customers wanting to experience the thrills of horror in time for opening day; he said he is going to focus on two and, if he has time, will build the third. He isn't worried about getting the work done.

"I will get it done," Mulinio said.

Capital Combat Zone, a paintball arena which is also located at the facility, was unaffected by the fire.

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