Brunswick, N.Y. — A July 20 fire destroyed three of the five haunted houses at Field of Horrors, and owner David Mulinio told the Times Union the buildings carried no insurance. He plans to rebuild in time to open in September regardless.
The cause was electrical, and the circumstances will sound familiar to anyone who runs a seasonal attraction. It started during routine July maintenance, in a building full of burlap, three weeks before the annual fire-retardant treatment.
What burned
Field of Horrors sits at 100 Farrell Road in Brunswick, in Rensselaer County just north of Troy. It shares the property with Capital Combat Zone, a paintball and airsoft operation that was not affected by the fire. The haunt runs hayrides and haunted houses; the paintball fields run year-round.
Three of the five haunted houses were destroyed: Insanity, Return of Mummy’s Curse, and Condemned Manor. All three sat inside a single interconnected building roughly 150 feet long.
Speigletown Fire Department Chief Dean Rysedorph said he got the call at 2:14 p.m. and arrived a minute later to find about half the building already engulfed. Heavy black smoke was pouring off it. The metal roof collapsed, which made it difficult for crews to get inside.
No one was in the building when it burned, and no one was injured.
Fighting it was not simple. About a dozen fire departments responded, working against extreme heat, that collapsed metal roof, and a limited water supply, refilling tanker trucks from a nearby hydrant through the afternoon. In total more than 20 mutual-aid partners came to the scene, including Town of Brunswick EMS, the Rensselaer County Bureau of Public Safety, the Rensselaer County Sheriff’s Office, New York State Police, the Town of Brunswick Highway Department, and National Grid. Crews kept the fire from reaching neighboring properties.
Mulinio said the buildings were gone in about an hour.
The cause: mice, wiring, and a generator
This is the part worth reading closely if you operate a seasonal attraction.
Every July, Mulinio told the Times Union, an employee goes through the facility repairing wiring that mice have chewed through during the off-season. That work was underway on Monday. Mulinio said the employee flipped on a generator, and he believes a spark from it caught the burlap inside the building.
Rysedorph confirmed the fire was electrical in nature.
There is a second detail that matters. Mulinio said he sprays the facility with roughly $5,000 worth of fire retardant every year, just before opening day, specifically to make the buildings more resilient. On July 20, that treatment had not been applied yet.
“These houses burnt too quickly,” Mulinio said.
Off-season rodent damage to wiring is close to universal in seasonal attractions. Buildings sit dark and unoccupied for eight or nine months, and the repair pass happens in the same weeks the structures are still full of untreated soft goods. The sequence that burned Field of Horrors is not exotic. It is the calendar most haunts run on.
The rebuild
Mulinio’s plan is to have new haunted houses ready for a September opening.
“I will make it happen. I don’t know how I’m going to make it happen, but I will figure it out,” he told the Times Union.
Cleanup has already started, and he expects construction to begin within about two weeks. He is prioritizing two of the three houses, with the third to follow if there is time before opening day. He wants to replace the old wooden walls with steel.
The complicating fact is the one buried in the middle of the Times Union’s reporting: the destroyed buildings were uninsured, and Mulinio acknowledged reconstruction will be expensive.
What Field of Horrors said
The attraction posted a statement the day of the fire thanking the more than 20 agencies that responded, naming each one.
“This fire may have damaged our attraction, but it hasn’t taken away the passion behind it. The road ahead won’t be easy, but we’re already looking toward the future. We’ll rebuild, overcome these challenges, and do everything we can to be ready to welcome you back for haunt season.”
The post also thanked first responders directly: “Your courage, professionalism, and teamwork prevented this tragedy from becoming even worse. We will never be able to thank you enough for what you did today.”
Why this keeps happening to independent haunts
We wrote earlier this month, covering The Nightmare Realm’s departure from Ireland after 16 years, that buildings and insurance are the two existential threats for independent haunts. Field of Horrors is both at once.
That Nightmare Realm piece was about an award-winning, profitable attraction with a Fanta sponsorship, five newly built mazes a season, and 150-plus live performers that still could not secure a permanent Irish home after a four-year search. A week earlier, FrightWorks announced an indefinite closure in East Tennessee after 27 years, when the building it leased sold and the new owner required the property delivered tenant-free. FrightWorks ran two farewell shows and opened a moving fund to cover dismantling and storage.
The insurance half is the one HAN has heard about directly from the industry. In our conversation with Cameron Annas of Granite Insurance, he described analyzing a liability policy sold to a haunted attraction that specifically excluded haunted houses, and said that after reviewing roughly 25 policies, “people would be significantly disappointed if/and when they have a claim.” Annas also drew the distinction that matters here: operators who own their buildings carry an annual property policy, while most haunts lease. Field of Horrors owns its structures and carried nothing on them.
There is precedent for coming back. Wicked Lit returned in 2026 after an eight-year pause, though at a new venue and with a compressed run. New York has seen a haunt lose a season before too: Frightworld in Buffalo canceled its entire 2020 season and returned the following year.
What separates Field of Horrors is the timeline. Mulinio is not talking about coming back next season. He is talking about six weeks.
What we still don’t know
- Whether all three houses reopen. Mulinio said he is focused on completing two, with the third if time allows.
- Whether the September opening date holds. Field of Horrors has not published 2026 dates since the fire.
- How the rebuild gets funded. No public fundraiser had been announced as of this writing.
- Whether the steel-wall plan clears local approvals in time for a September opening.
HAN will update this story as Field of Horrors announces its 2026 season status.
More HAN coverage
- The Nightmare Realm Leaves Ireland After 16 Years, Citing Building Crisis
- FrightWorks Announces Indefinite Closure After Building Sale
- Freakling Bros. Is Taking the 2026 Halloween Season Off
- Granite Insurance for Haunted Attractions
- Haunt Extreme Disaster Preparedness and Survival
- When Do Haunted Houses Open in 2026?
Details on the fire’s cause and the rebuild plan reported by the Times Union, News10 ABC, and WRGB. Field of Horrors’ statement was posted to its Facebook page on July 20, 2026.
