WATERVLIET, NY - On March 6th at 5:58 P.M., the Watervliet FD along with mutual aid from the Green Island FD, Watervliet Arsenal FD and the city of Albany's FD were dispatched for a reported structure fire in the area of Second Avenue and Second Street. The dispatcher was receiving multiple calls for a building on fire.

Thick, heavy black smoke could be seen as fire units were responding down Broadway to the scene and the engine company en route immediately declared a working structure fire and began the recall process.

Multiple fire apparatus quickly arrived on scene and firefighters declared a Signal 30 for a working structure fire and transmitted a second-alarm. Heavy fire was impinging on multiple structures, including an auto body shop and a multi-family occupancy building. Firefighters immediately took up positions behind Schuyler Autobody with an engine company and began to deploy multiple hand lines while the City of Watervliet FD’s Truck Company and Watervliet Arsenal's Tele-squirt set up on Second Street.

With the building fully involved, firefighters had numerous exposure issues on several sides of the structure, with the siding on one of the buildings starting to catch fire and another building with fire traveling near the roof area. Multiple small explosions occurred from inside the main fire building.

Crews deployed several hand lines down the gangway and firefighters from both truck companies immediately began master stream operations to stop the spread of the fire to the other exposure buildings. With the two truck companies operating two master streams, putting over 750-GPM of water onto the fire, the fire was quickly brought under control. A hand line was used to quickly cool the siding on one of the houses that was in close proximity of the main fire building. Firefighters on scene used another hand line to conduct overhaul on the main fire building.

Crews were able to bring the fire under control in less than 20 minutes and then began conducting extensive overhaul of the building, checking for extension in both of the exposure buildings. The main fire building was completely destroyed and the owner lost several pieces of equipment. The two exposure buildings suffered moderate damage from the initial fire. The Watervliet Police Department is working to determine the cause of the fire. No injuries have been reported.