Car dealer fire deemed electrical, accidental
The fire that leveled 613 Automotive on Main Street in the village, which was being used as an HBO miniseries set at the time, was electrical in nature and has been ruled accidental, Ellenville Police Chief Philip Mattracion said Tuesday, citing a preliminary determination by fire investigators.
Mattracion said the Ulster County Division of Fire Investigation determined the blaze was caused by “an unspecified electrical event.” He said the preliminary determination was made last Thursday, the day of the fire, but not provided to him until Tuesday.
Wayne Freer, the division’s arson coordinator, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
The car dealership, owned by Levi Hecht, was being used as a set and staging area for the HBO miniseries “I Know This Much is True” when it caught fire and burned to the ground.
Hecht said none of the dealership’s vehicles for sale were lost in the blaze because they had been moved to other locations for the duration of the HBO shoot, but a few vehicles that were in the business’ repair bays, including one he had bought for his father, were destroyed.
Hecht said he plans to rebuild.
On Thursday, Ellenville Mayor Jeff Kaplan told the Freeman that HBO equipment left at the site “caused a spark,” which ignited flammable materials on the set. But both Hecht and Mattracion declined at the time to discuss what caused the blaze, which began at 1 a.m. that day.
HBO has not returned calls from the Freeman.
An HBO statement in a USA Today story Friday said production of “I Know This Much is True” had been “temporarily suspended” but would resume shortly.
Prior to filming in Ellenville, HBO shot portions of the miniseries in the town of Ulster and the Poughkeepsie area.
Hecht has operated 613 Automotive, which is at the south end of Ellenville, for about seven years and has dealerships of the same name in Monticello and New Hampton. He said last week that the 15 employees of the Ellenville business were being moved to the other locations and would not lose their jobs.
The 10,000-square-foot dealership building was a total loss, and three nearby houses were damaged by the fire and condemned. Families living in those houses were relocated.