Resident safe in Curry Road house fire
The Enterprise — Elizabeth Floyd Mair
A firefighter carries a hose past the side entrance to the Curry Road home that was extensively damaged in a fire Tuesday morning. No one was injured, although a number of cats are thought to have died.
GUILDERLAND — Smoke billowed through a gaping hole in the slate roof of a small brick home at 2973 Curry Rd. early Tuesday morning.
The man who lived in the home got out safely, but he kept trying to go back in to save his cats, said Chief Paul Miller of the Altamont Fire Department.
Efforts to put out the blaze were hampered by lack of water.
“There are no hydrants out here,” said Fort Hunter Assistant Chief Greg Comparetta, who was in charge.
When crews arrived, Comparetta said, there was “heavy fire” on the second floor of the wood-framed house.
Firefighters started trying to knock down the flames using water from a tanker truck, but ran out of water and needed to wait until they could hook into the nearest hydrant, at Morris Road, almost a mile away.
The call had come in at 5:30 a.m., and two hours later firefighters brought in a ladder truck to shoot water down onto the second floor.
“There are still hot spots. It’s not safe to have crews in there,” said Comparetta.
Avoiding power lines: A long driveway beside the home at 2973 Curry Rd. was used to bring in a ladder truck while avoiding the power lines along the road.
Among the other fire departments on the scene were Stanford Heights, Rotterdam, South Schenectady, Westmere, Guilderland, and McKownville.
Albany County tax assessment rolls show the one-family home as owned by Barbara A. Vink, with a full-market value of $160,227.
Firefighters were unsure how many cats may have died in the fire. Comparetta said a number of cats had survived and were taken away by Animal Control for treatment, but that not all had made it out.
“I heard there were 12 cats,” said Miller. “There was a couple still missing.”
