SCHODACK LANDING, NY - On May 18th at 3:35 P.M., the Rensselaer County Emergency Communication Center was taking multiple calls for 546 River Road in the Schodack Landing Fire District for a well involved structure fire with entrapment.

The Schodack Landing, Castleton, Schodack Valley, South Schodack and East Schodack Fire Departments, as well as Nassau ambulance, were immediately dispatched to the scene. At the same time of this incident, the Rensselaer County Emergency Communication Center was handling a lumberyard fire in another part of the county on Route 66 in Hoags Corners Fire District.

Castleton Car 1 called en route to the scene and the dispatcher notified him that they were taking multiple calls on the fire, and there was possible entrapment. As the chief was responding to the scene a thick, heavy black column of smoke was visible from over five miles away, Castleton ambulance notified the dispatcher that they were clearing another call and would be en route to the scene. A state police unit quickly arrived on scene and notified the dispatcher that the house was fully involved and the neighboring house across the street was beginning to catch fire. Castleton Car 1 immediately requested all stations to be redispatched for a working fire.

Rescue 32, Engine 6-9 and Schodack Landing Car 2 called en route to the scene and Schodack Landing Car 2 requested a tanker box to be transmitted as well as a second-alarm, bringing additional resources from East Schodack, Niverville, Stuyvesant, Stuyvesant Falls, Kinderhook, Nassau, East Greenbush, Best Luther, and West Ghent Fire Departments to the scene.

Units quickly arrived on scene and had a fully involved multi-occupancy structure fire with a 500-gallon propane tank and heavy impingement along with an SUV on fire in the driveway. Firefighters quickly directed their attention to the building across the street that was beginning to melt from the high intensity of the heat. Just as firefighters began to cool the building down with a hand line, one of the windows melted right out of the building, exposing the interior portion of the structure. Firefighters, fearing that building could catch fire at any time, began to rapidly cool it with their tank water.

Additional units stacked up on each other and began to knock down some of the heavy fire. Resources from Stuyvesant FD arrived on scene and began deploying their manpower to the rear of the building, and crews set up a line between the building and the propane tank. Stuyvesant's chief requested Amtrak to the scene to have a crew dig out underneath the railroad ties so that a large diameter hose could be laid to an engine near the river to feed the scene. Crews began to knock down a large amount of the fire, but as they were doing so a large portion of the structure collapsed. Command requested National Grid to the scene, as they had live power lines down in the yard.

Firefighters deployed additional hand lines to the rear of the building, as they still had reports of entrapment inside the building. Despite heavy fire blowing over their heads, firefighters made their push up the stairwell and were met with significant heat, fire and heavy smoke. A hand line was used to knock down some of the fire before crews pushed into the building. As firefighters in the rear of the building were pushing in, a large portion of the roof came down on them, hampering their search efforts. They then backed out onto the stairwell and began to hit as much of the fire as they could while utilizing a thermal imaging camera and all of the windows to attempt to locate the trapped victim.

A chief in the rear of the building noticed there was heavy fire in the basement below the firefighters working on the stairwell and took a hand line to quickly knock down some of the heavy fire condition. After another portion of the roof collapsed, firefighters pulled off of the rear stairwell and took up defensive operations. Firefighters on the other side of a fence broke down the fence and utilized a two-and-a-half-inch hand line to knock down a significant portion of the heavy fire running the roofline.

Tankers began to arrive on scene and command had the units set up at the end of the roadway, as there was only one way into the scene and one way out, and tankers were forced to turn around on the roadway. As tankers continued to drop water, firefighters continued to utilize that water in an attempt to bring the heavy fire condition under control. Firefighters pounded the scene with tens-of-thousands of gallons of water, and the heavy black smoke turned to brown and then turned to steam.

National Grid arrived and killed the power, making it safe for firefighters to move around the front of the building. As firefighters were on the 'Bravo' side of the building, they noticed that there was smoke coming from under a neighbor's porch where hot embers had ignited a small brush fire. Crews quickly brought that fire under control. Command deemed the structure unsafe to enter and had firefighters remain on the exterior portion of the structure. The New York State Police Bureau of criminal investigation requested additional resources to the scene and command requested the Rensselaer County Fire Investigation Team to the scene.

About two hours into the fire, firefighters were able to bring the incident under control after an exhausting battle. Fire Investigators began to walk through the incident scene and two individuals were questioned by state police as they were working inside of the building at the time of the fire. Later in the evening, fire investigators located the reported missing person from the fire and safely removed their body from the scene. Several animals were also lost in the fire.

The district attorney for Rensselaer County arrived on scene to meet with police and county investigators. One firefighter was transported to the hospital with heat exhaustion. No other injuries were reported. Investigators have not yet released any information on the determination of the cause of the fire.