Eight displaced in Newburgh Broadway fire

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Email
Print

Over 70 firefighters from several companies fought the blaze (photo: Bob McCormick)

NEWBURGH – Five apartments were heavily damaged when a fast-moving fire raged through an apartment dwelling at 746 Broadway in Newburgh.
The three-alarm fire brought out 32 Newburgh City firefighters as well as 40 others from neighboring departments under mutual aid.
Newburgh Police officers helped rescue residents from the building at
3:45 a.m. on Wednesday.
Officer Daniel O’Elicio went into the building, located an elderly man and helped him to safety. Officer Mathew McAllister went to the rear of the building and assisted residents who had climbed out second-story windows and got to the group from a garage.
Sgt. Timothy Gliedman and Officer Charles Cruz located a woman leaning out a second-floor window. She was unable to get out of her apartment due to the fire on the first floor. The two officers helped her climb out a window and caught her as she jumped from the second floor. Several residents were taken to St. Luks’ Cornwall Hospital for treatment of minor injuries.
One firefighter also sustained a minor injury.
Fire Chief Terry Ahlers said the frigid weather made firefighting difficult.
“The weather was 19 degrees at the time of the fire call, which resulted in a lot of slips and falls with our firefighting personnel,” Ahlers said. “It also fatigued them very rapidly, which caused us to rotate crews more frequently.”
The city’s west end firehouse remains closed for asbestos remediation and the Company 3 truck remains at the public safety building until a deal is finalized to temporarily house it at the Goodwill Fire Department just over the city line in the Town of Newburgh.
Ahlers said with the Company Three truck being located on lower Broadway doubled the three-minute response time the crew would normally take if they were housed in their upper Broadway location.




Popular Stories