Nick Henderson couldn’t find his glasses.
This was after Woodstock police officers Kevin Haines and Cory Schmidt, arriving just a minute after being dispatched, guided the disoriented Ulster Publishing reporter Henderson from a fire at his residence, a building with four apartments at 137 Tinker Street, minutes after 10 p.m. on Friday, January 5.
Henderson said that at first he thought the flames came from a pot on his stove. “That’s what I had thought,” he said, “but everything is a blur now.” But, according to Woodstock Fire Chief Kevin Peters, county investigators preliminarily pinned the cause on an electrical outlet.
“I’m trying to piece together what happened,” said Henderson, “because the next thing I knew everything’s on fire. I was in and out of consciousness. Yeah, it was the smoke. I’m still having coughing fits in the middle of the night.”
Henderson was taken that night by Woodstock’s Rescue Squad ambulance, to HealthAlliance Hospital in Kingston and later released.
“It was right by the stove someplace, an electrical outlet,” said Fire Chief Peters. “We did find (Nick’s) cat (Sox), (fire fighter) Baris Demirel found the cat upstairs, gave it to Jessica Rose or Taylor Peters. They warmed it up and took it to the rescue squad.”
According to the landlord Tim Tensen, who has owned it since 1987, work will start Wednesday, January 10 on fixing the structure. “Absolutely they start tomorrow,” said Tensen. “I want to thank the Woodstock Police for a very fast response getting Nick out of there. Number two, is to the rescue squad and the fire company, sincere thanks from the bottom of my heart. It could have been a very different outcome.”
Henderson says he’s been inside the structure since the fire. “It didn’t burn to the ground, but it’s very black and charred. None of the floor is exposed because lots of the ceiling is on the floor. It’s not pretty.”
Peters agrees that “it’s fixable, but you spray water and it goes from upstairs to downstairs.
It was pretty nasty in there, smoke from the fire was banked down upstairs. The whole place was pretty smoked over. We had to shut the electric off.”
It’s been a rough time for Henderson. This comes on top of health concerns that he has had.
“I’m doing all right considering everything else,” said the even-tempered reporter. “I lost my glasses in the process…I have the prescription for them.” He has since found a fast turnaround and gotten a new pair. “And I saved my computer. It’s nice and toasty smelling but working.” Henderson has been staying with his parents. The other tenants in the building have had to find places to reside, at least until the building can be rehabilitated.
The Woodstock Fire Department and Woodstock Police were assisted by the West Hurley Fire Department, Centerville Fire Department, Woodstock Police, Ulster County Sheriffs, New York State Police, Ulster County Department of Emergency Services, Central Hudson and the New York State DOT.
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