Christopher Coen
Melissa Sogard
nancylee1
At least five houses were damaged in a fire that sweep through an historic neighborhood in downtown near the capitol in Albany on Sunday. The building where the fire started was occupied by three Myanmar refugee families resettled by Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Albany. An article at the Albany Times-Union explains:
ALBANY — First, neighbors heard screams. Then they saw the flames.
A wall of fire washed over half a block of Park Avenue in the Mansion neighborhood Sunday evening, drawing every firetruck in the capital city to try to contain a blaze that was roaring in three houses when crews arrived around 8 p.m.
At least five houses erected in the years after the Civil War were damaged, officials said late Sunday. And although half a city block was evacuated as smoke and steam spoiled the mild spring air, no firefighters or residents were injured, according to Mayor Jerry Jennings and Fire Chief Robert Forezzi.
It was too early, the men said, to know how many people were displaced…
…Michele O’Sullivan, 45, was sitting in her apartment at 56 Park Ave. when “we heard screams, then we heard fire, then we looked up and in seconds we saw the flames.” She and several other neighbors said the blaze started at 60 Park Ave., in the back of the top floor. Forezzi and Jennings said an investigation was ongoing and that any word on a cause was premature. That building is occupied by three families who are refugees from the southeast Asian nation of Burma, according to a volunteer for Catholic Charities who assists them. The volunteer declined to be named. Some recently arrived in the city, but others have been here at least two years, the volunteer said… Read more here
