Fire leaves 21 homeless
An early Saturday evening fire on Mansion Street has displaced 21 residents belonging to three families.
An early Saturday evening fire on Mansion Street has displaced 21 residents belonging to three families.
Renee Kelly and her family had started moving into the top-floor apartment earlier in the day and are now among the homeless.
According to Kelly, she had noticed the kitchen light “flickering weird” and pointed it out to her daughter-in-law before going back downstairs to get more belongings. Standing out by a truck with her grandchildren, she noticed smoke “pouring out of the top of the house” and called 911.
Poughkeepsie 911 received a call at 5:53 p.m. reporting a fire at that location and firefighters were on scene within four minutes. They were met with flames flaring out from the rear of the third floor.
Additional firefighters from the Arlington and Fairview fire departments arrived at the three-story house to assist.
The firefighters searched the three apartments for occupants and found none.
Poughkeepsie personnel stretched two hose lines up to the third floor, contained the flames to the kitchen and had the fire extinguished by 6:30 p.m., officials said.
According to Inspector Gary Beck Jr., city records show the building at 333 Mansion St. as “vacant with no certificate of occupancy on file.”
Records indicate the building is owned by Luria Yehoshua of Spring Valley in Rockland County.
Poughkeepsie Fire Chief Mark Johnson said investigators are working to determine the cause of the fire.
The American Red Cross sent representatives to the scene to assist the displaced tenants, he said.
In a release, the Mid-Hudson chapter of the American Red Cross stated that the organization had counted 21 displaced individuals in three families.
The Red Cross stated it provided financial assistance for necessities such as shelter, food and clothing to three families: three adults and three children in one family, four adults, two children in the second family, and four adults, five children in the third family.
The structure contains three apartments; one on each floor, Poughkeepsie officials stated.
Central Hudson arrived to disconnect utility service to the address while Poughkeepsie building inspectors placed notices on the doors indicating that occupancy was prohibited.
No occupants or emergency responders were injured during the incident, according to Chief Johnson.