POUGHKEEPSIE – City firefighters in Poughkeepsie responded to the Hudson Avenue apartment complex Friday afternoon for reports of a fire with occupants trapped. Firefighters arrived to find fire and smoke in a second-floor apartment of building 6.
Poughkeepsie firefighters had received conflicting reports of trapped victims including a young child and an elderly woman in a wheelchair. The firefighters made entry into the apartment and immediately began searching. Firefighters from neighboring Fairview and Arlington fire departments responded to the scene to provide assistance.
As firefighters attempted to extinguish the fire, others searched for possible victims in the apartment. The occupants had evacuated before the first responders arrived, according to Poughkeepsie Fire Chief Mark Johnson.
Johnson said that his men were able to confine the fire to a mattress in a bedroom of Apartment 12, where it had originated. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
The apartment sustained substantial smoke and water damage as well as multiple windows that were broken to allow the smoke to escape while the firefighter had been searching for victims.
Medics from Mobile Life Support Services evaluated the disabled female occupant and child, neither of whom required additional medical treatment. Two firefighters sustained minor abrasions to their hands.
(c) Mid-Hudson News Network
