A residence located at 12 Valdine Drive in the Town of New Paltz was completely destroyed by a fire that started just before midnight on Saturday, December 17, according to the New Paltz Fire Department’s first assistant fire chief Cory Wirthmann. The homeowners escaped the blaze and are “staying with neighbors across the street,” he said.
Wirthmann called the extent of the damage “a total loss.” Because of the scale of the conflagration, “The official report by the investigators says that the cause of the fire was ‘undetermined,’” but noted that the homeowners believed that it started when their Christmas tree, located adjacent to the building’s front door, caught fire, blocking the exit. “They had to find another way out, so they climbed out through a side window,” the assistant chief reported, in which process the male homeowner sustained minor abrasions to the forehead. His wife escaped uninjured.
Wirthmann said the residents of the house phoned 911 to report the fire themselves, after being awakened by their smoke alarm; firefighters “got dispatched around midnight.” Six additional mutual aid companies responded, and it took two hours to “knock it down,” or get the fire under control enough for firefighters to enter the remains of the building. “We were there until around 6 a.m. It took a long time to put the fire out,” Wirthmann said. No firefighters were injured.
The responders were able to save both of the couple’s two cars, stored in a garage underneath the main structure. Other than that, said Wirthmann, “The family pretty much lost everything.” The local chapter of the American Red Cross provided some immediate assistance, and the assistant chief expressed confidence that the community would respond quickly with additional support for the displaced family: “The New Paltz community is awesome for that.”
The New Paltz Fire Department did not officially released the identities of the displaced homeowners. However, a GoFundMe campaign was announced on Facebook on Sunday, identifying the couple as 14-year New Paltz residents Mickey and Geraldine Kelly. By Thursday afternoon the online crowdfunding site had already raised more than $13,000 in financial assistance to the family.
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