ALBANY COUNTY — During violent thunderstorms Monday that caused area flooding and power outages, Kevin Crosier was shocked by an electric current and hospitalized.

Berne’s supervisor, Crosier works as a firefighter for the city of Albany. A home on Cuyler Avenue off Delaware Avenue had been struck by lightning and Crosier, called to the scene of the fire, was crawling in the basement along with two other firefighters.

He reached down and felt in the dark what he thought was a metal cabinet.

An electric shock blew him backwards, he said, as current shot through his right arm and his right leg. His right arm was numb and he could barely move it, he said.

He was admitted to Albany Medical Center Hospital for testing and x-rays on Monday and was released on Tuesday. He had some burning sensations and soreness in his right bicep Tuesday evening and was taking pain pills, he said.
"It was quite an experience — one I hope I never have again," he said. "How it occurred is going to be a mystery"The entire building was electrified."

Monday afternoon and into the early evening, thunderstorms raged throughout the county, bringing down large trees, and causing power outages and flooding.

Three separate storms, each lasting from 30 minutes to one hour, hit Albany County, said Brian Frugis with the National Weather Service. The last of the three storms, he said, caused the most extensive damage and is probably the worst he’s seen in Albany County this year.

High temperatures and humidity, both conducive to thunderstorms, contributed to the violent nature of the storms, Frugis said.

Around 8 p.m. near the Pine Hills Public Library in Albany, road flares marked streets and residents sat on curbs across from their darkened homes, waiting for power to be restored. Power was out at the high school in Guilderland Center, causing the school board to meet briefly in a darkening room, before postponing the rest of its meeting. Route 20 was closed between Stuyvesant Plaza and the Northway due to flooding. Motorists passed through intersections cautiously, traffic signals not telling them whether to go, yield, or stop.

Crosier described the circumstances of the Cuyler Avenue fire.
While he was in the basement with two other firefighters around 6:45 p.m., rain poured outside. Lightning had struck the Cuyler Avenue house. Visibility was poor; it was hot and dark, and heavy smoke filled the house. In a basement with one entrance and small windows, Crosier and fellow firefighters had only "one way in and one way out," he said.

Once Crosier received the electric shock, he and the other two firefighters realized they were trapped and quickly left the house. Other firefighters were fighting the fire on the first floor. The battalion chief then ordered everyone out of the house, and the fire company fought the fire from outside. The wet house — sheathed in aluminum siding with a loose electric connection — was electrified.
"There’s no such thing as a routine fire," said Crosier, who has been a firefighter for 19 years. "I’ve never seen anything like it."