GUILDERLAND — On Christmas Eve, the Berschwinger family fled their smoke-filled Belleview Drive home, and volunteer firefighters arrived to battle the blaze.
"It took 45 minutes to technically knock the fire down," said Bill Kanas, chief of the Fort Hunter Volunteer Fire Company.

A Fort Hunter lieutenant was injured, said Kanas, with burns on his ear and the side of his face. He declined naming the firefighter, but said the lieutenant was treated Dec. 24 at St. Clare’s Hospital in Schenectady and released that night.
"He’s okay," said Kanas. "He’s got a bandage on his ear. He went to visit family for Christmas."

The Berschwingers — parents Rick and Dawn and the three of their four sons who were home — all got out of their house uninjured but they are now dealing with the aftermath of the fire.

Relief fund
"They lost everything on Christmas Eve," said Joe Abbruzzese, who described Rick Berschwinger as his best friend. Abbruzzese has set up a relief fund to help the family.
"Everybody got out of the house," he said. "They’re shook up but they’re thankful that it didn’t happen three or four hours later, when they would have been asleep."

The call came in after 8 p.m.

The house where the Berschwingers have lived for about a decade, Abbruzzese said, is destroyed. Whether they rebuild will depend on the insurance, he said.

Rick, who works for Freihofer’s as an account executive, and Dawn Berschwinger have four sons, he said.
"His four kids are the exact same ages as my four kids," said Abbruzzese. "We got to know each other through Little League and through kids’ events. We’ve been friends for close to 30 years."
One of the Berschwingers’ sons is married, said Abbruzzese. "He and his wife had just left" from a Christmas Eve visit at the Berschwingers’ home when the fire broke out.
The Berschwingers, Abbruzzese said, have had a rough year. "Rick’s mother died just two weeks ago," he said, and Dawn Berschwinger’s mother died this summer.
"After her mom died, her things were moved to their home. They lost it all," he said.
"Everybody’s sort of in shock," Abbruzzese said of the Berschwingers. "They’re all staying in different places."
People in the community have been generous in making donations, he said. "My house is filling up with clothes."

The Abbruzzeses have set up a fund for monetary contributions. It’s called The Berschwinger Family Relief Fund; checks can be sent to Dawn Abbruzzese at 3546 Carman Road, Schenectady, NY 12303 or to any Trustco Bank.
"This is so they can buy what they need, stuff that fits, to tide them over until they get their insurance money," said Abbruzzese.

"Doing a good thing"

Chief Kanas described for The Enterprise events as they unfolded on Dec. 24.
Kanas was the first to arrive on the scene, he said. "The first thing I checked was to make sure everyone was out," said Kanas. "Then I called mutual aid."

Fire companies — all volunteer — from Rotterdam District 2, Carman, Guilderland Center, Guilderland, and Westmere all arrived on the scene. The Altamont Fire Department stood by at the Fort Hunter station in case another fire were called in.
Information from the homeowner was that it was a chimney fire, but, said Kanas, "Once we got inside, we realized we had a lot more."
He described the house at 7243 Belleview Drive, off East Lydius Street, as a two-story split level and said, "The whole house was damaged...There was a lot of heavy fire in the rear of the house in the family room."

Two nearby fire hydrants functioned well, he said. Altogether about 45 volunteer firefighters battled the blaze, said Kanas.
While the fire was "knocked down" in less than an hour, the firefighters didn’t finish at the scene until about 1 a.m. on Christmas morning, said Kanas.
"I saw Santa fly overhead," Kanas quipped.
The chief then went on in a serious tone, "It’s important for people to know we are volunteers," he said.

Local firefighters have had a tough holiday season, with a long-term fire smoldering for days in a grain silo in the industrial park at Guilderland Center. That fire is out now, Kanas said on Tuesday, but it took its toll on the personal lives of local firefighters. Tim McIntyre, an East Berne firefighter, working with the Altamont department three weeks ago, broke his leg fighting an earlier fire at the same grain silo.

Kanas, who is 44 and works in sales, has been a member of the Fort Hunter Volunteer Fire Company for 12 years.
Asked if it was hard for his six- and nine-year-old sons to have their father leave on Christmas Eve to fight a fire, Kanas said, "They know I’m doing a good thing. It’s like that for all of us, all volunteers — we do what we have to do."