EAST KINGSTON – Fire in an old church at 59 Brigham Street in the Town of Ulster destroyed the building. The cause is unknown, but the building has been vacant for some 10 years with no electricity.
Little of the long-vacant structure
left standing after the fire
Next door neighbor John O’Bryan called the fire in.
“Within two minutes of the officers arriving on the scene,” O’Bryan said. “They knocked on doors and woke everyone up. It went from smoke to the whole bell tower of the church in a conflagration. I got the family out and grabbed the dog out and put them in the car just in case the building fell this way. The smoke was so bad.”
The blaze, which was called in around 11:30 p.m. Saturday, brought out other fire departments under mutual aid. One firefighter was injured and taken to the hospital.
O’Bryan said the building had not been used as a church for years and was used for storage by owners in later years.
This is not the first fire in the immediate area in recent days and investigators are looking into possible connections between them.
