MIDDLETOWN – By the time Middletown firefighters arrived on the scene just before 6 Sunday morning, flames were already shooting out of a more than 100-year-old vacant building at the former Middletown Psychiatric Center grounds. The seven-alarm blaze kept firefighters from several departments busy all day.
Fighting the fire was a daylong effort (Photo: Jim Lennon)
The four-story brick structure, which was privately owned, was enclosed by a chain link fence and had been vacant for years with no electric service.
Middletown Fire Department Secretary Sean Gerow said the fire was fought cautiously.
“We didn’t want to put anyone in harm’s way,” he said.
The fire was fought from the exterior because of a structural collapse. Upper floors caved in and fell below.
Gerow said there was no telling how long the structure had been burning before the alarm was called in.
The building was being demolished as of early Sunday evening.
One firefighter was injured. The cause of the blaze is under investigation.
The building was once listed on a website as one of the 10 scary places in Orange County. In April 2009, several Washingtonville High School students were charged with trespassing for sneaking inside the fenced in area outside the building.
This is the second fire at the former campus in recent weeks. Another vacant building was destroyed in a fire of unknown origin.
