NEW SCOTLAND – The family of Amelia Lee is mourning her unexpected death; She died when her home at 32 Lower Flat Rock Rd. burned on Aug. 9.

Lee had been a resident of Lower Flat Rock Road for about 42 years, said her daughter, Charlene Breedon. Lee lived there with her daughter, Mary, who was not at home at the time of the fire.

The call came in around 2:42 p.m., said the Onesquethaw fire chief, Fred Spaulding.

Fire crews were faced with heavy smoke and flames coming from the first floor of the house upon arriving at the scene, Spaulding said.
"Smoke could be seen from a few miles away," he said.

Firefighters were not aware that Lee was home, said Craig Apple, chief deputy with the Albany County Sheriff’s Department. The scene became a somber one after the body was found, said Spaulding.

An autopsy was performed at Albany Medical Center Hospital by Dr. Jeffrey Hubbard. The cause of death was determined to have been carbon monoxide poisoning due to smoke inhalation, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

In addition to Onesquethaw, volunteer fire departments from New Salem, Selkirk, North Bethlehem, East Berne, and Elsmere responded as well as rescue squads from Delmar and Voorheesville.

The Sheriff’s Department is investigating the fire, and has not yet determined the cause of the fire, Apple told The Enterprise.
"The house was basically gutted," said Spaulding.

He told The Enterprise that the crews did a great job, but that it is especially tough when someone dies.
"It beats you up, when you know there is a fatality," he said, "It plays on your mind. You ask yourself, ‘Should I have done something differently"’"

Spaulding said there was at least one working smoke detector in the house. He added that homes should carry a smoke detector on each floor, including basements and attics.

He recommends that smoke detector batteries be checked monthly and should be replaced at least once a year, twice a year for added caution.

Spaulding has been with the Onesquethaw Volunteer Fire Department since 1973. He said that the first fire fatality in his experience was on President’s Day of 1984, in Unionville.

LaGrange, a town board member in New Scotland, who runs a 250-cow dairy farm near by, stopped at the scene of the fire before Wednesday’s board meeting, and learned of Lee’s death. He told The Enterprise that the Lee family had been friends of his family for years. Lee’s sons, Raymond and Michael used to help out on his farm, he said.
"You kind of get knocked back a step when something like that happens," he said, "There is no other word for it except tragic."