‘HEROIC’ COPS SAVE 38 PEOPLE FROM FIRE
Sergeant and officer kicked in doors to alert apartment complex tenants
ELLENVILLE, N.Y. >> Two village police officers were being credited Friday with saving the lives of dozens of residents of the Emerald Pond Estates apartment complex on U.S. Route 209 as a fire swept through one of its buildings overnight.
Eleven families, comprising a total of 38 people, were left homeless by the blaze at the south end of the village, which was reported at 2:20 a.m., according to Ellenville Building Inspector Brian Schug and a post on the Ellenville Police Department’s Facebook page. Schug said the fire destroyed five apartments in the 12-unit building and that the seven others sustained “roof damage to the point of possible collapse.” One of the 12 units was vacant, he said.
Sgt. Robert Morse and Officer Ulysses Young of the Ellenville Police Department saw the apartments on fire at 200 S. Main St. (U.S. Route 209) and began kicking in doors in the complex’s Building D, waking residents and evacuating them from the burning building, the police department said.
“All of the residents were accounted for without injury,” the police Facebook post stated.
“The real difference maker here between the fact that there were no injuries, and the possibility of multiple fatalities, is twofold: first, the fast response of the Ellenville Police Department ... and the heroic actions of Sgt. Robert Morse and Officer Ulysses Young,” village Police Chief Philip Mattracion said in the online post.
“Both of these officers kicked in doors and entered smokefilled apartments in order to evacuate and rescue residents safely from a fully engulfed burning building,” Mattracion added. “They did so without hesitation and without fear for their own lives, and with great personal risk of death or serious physical injury to themselves . ...
“If not for their quick response and heroic actions, there certainly would have been numerous lives lost today,” the chief said.
Mattracion also said that af-
ter all the residents were out, the sergeant and officer “ran back into one of the apartments” and rescued a family’s dogs.
Morse and Young were treated at Ellenville Regional Hospital for smoke inhalation and leg injuries, police said.
Schug said the building where the blaze broke out was condemned because of “extensive fire damage.” He said the owner, Emerald Pond Holdings of Monroe, was instructed to remove the second floor of the building, the roof and the five “destroyed apartments.”
“They may just demolish the whole building because we are requiring them to demolish one-half to threequarters of it,” he said.
A representative of Emerald Pond Holdings could not be reached for comment.
Schug said Ulster County fire investigators deemed the blaze accidental and isolated the apartment where it began, but still were working to find the exact cause.
Late Friday morning, a resident of the burned building was removing salvageable items from her apartment. She told a Freeman photographer she was instructed to retrieve her belongings because the building would be demolished.
Shaquan Taylor, a resident of an adjacent building in the complex, said he was evacuated when heat from the fire began melting siding on his building, about 20 feet away. Taylor, a teaching assistant at Ellenville Middle School, said one of the displaced residents is one of his sixthgrade students.
Taylor described “a blaze of fire” lighting up the complex. He said “people were crying and it was just terrible.”
The affected residents were taken to the Ellenville Village Hall, where temporary shelter was offered by village staff and the American Red Cross. The Ellenville Central School District supplied food and beverages, the police department said. The Red Cross said it had “provided financial assistance for necessities such as shelter, food and clothing to six families, totaling 27 people, (including) 12 adults and 15 children, ranging from 2 to 16 years old.”
Red Cross “volunteers are also offering emotional support and comfort kits containing personal care items and stuffed animals for children,” and “staff and volunteers remain available to help additional families displaced by the fire,” the agency said in a press release.
None of the affected residents remained at the Village Hall midday Monday. A police officer in the building said all had made temporary housing arrangements and that some might be placed in vacant apartments
at Emerald Pond Estates.
The officer also said community members and a local store had offered furniture and other items to people displaced by the fire.
Firefighters from 11 companies in Ulster and Sullivan counties fought the blaze for about five hours. It was declared extinguished at 7:30 a.m.
Firefighters from Ellenville, Napanoch, Cragsmoor, Kerhonkson, Accord, Stone Ridge, Summitville, Wurtstboro, Bloomingburg, Walker Valley and Grahamsville helped extinguish the fire. The Ulster County and Sullivan County fire coordinators and the Ulster County Arson Task Force also were at the scene.
Ellenville police were assisted at the scene by the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office and state police.
Schug said the building’s “smoke detectors were wailing loudly” when firefighters arrived, and credited housing inspector Nordeen Pickell for her oversight of the village’s rental safety program.