SLINGERLANDS – It took teamwork from 10 fire departments to extinguish a house fire on Hidden Hollow Road in Bethlehem, just off Krumkill Road, on Wednesday, Feb. 1 due to its location and availability of water. No one was home at the time, but one Albany firefighter was injured and many pets died in the fire.
Bethlehem fire dispatch put the first calls out at 12:57 p.m. to Slingerlands, Delmar and North Bethlehem. The house is within Slingerlands’ district and when Chief Craig Sleurs arrived, he immediately called for more help.
“The house was showing smoke and flames,” he said. “I immediately called a signal 30 for a working structure fire.”
When he arrived at the scene, Albany Fire Department crews and equipment had already arrived from two calls to city dispatchers a few minutes earlier.
The house is located only a few hundred feet from the Albany city line and residents at Ohav Shalom Apartments next door and a person traveling on Route 85 both called in the fire to 911.
“When I came up (Route) 85, I could see Albany was already there,” Sleurs said. “When I reached the scene, I spoke to command at the scene and said ‘we are here to work together’, even though it was in Bethlehem.”
According to Sleurs, there were no hydrants close to the scene and the departments had to run hoses from near the apartments up Krumkill on the Albany side, but the water pressure from that hydrant was not sufficient. When the Bethlehem departments arrived a few minutes later crews began the process of bringing water up from the Bethelhem side of the fire.
The nearest hydrant was near the intersection of Andover and Krumkill Roads which is about 1,600 feet away and down a steep hill from the fire.
“Luckily, North Bethlehem has a tanker that holds 2,500 gallons of water, and when the Albany trucks exhausted their on-board water supply, we were able to use that truck,” Sleurs said.
A normal fire truck carries 500 to 1,000 gallons of water to use before it needs to hook into a hydrant or external water supply.
The Bethlehem departments used two pumper trucks to get the water to the trucks at the scene, one at the hydrant and another halfway up the hill.
Crews were at the scene until 5:31 p.m.
According to Bethlehem police, fire investigators were on the scene and the fire does not appear to be suspicious.
The fire appears to have started on an enclosed porch at the rear of the house and spread to the main structure.
One Albany Firefighter suffered a knee injury and was transported to the hospital, Sleurs said.
According to a release from police, six dogs, four cats and two ferrets perished in the fire.
The Red Cross was connected with the family to offer support.
Fire departments from the City of Albany, Slingerlands, Delmar, Elsmere, North Bethlehem, Selkirk, Mckownville, Westmere, New Salem and Onesquethaw responded as well as Bethlehem EMS, DPW, Highway and police.
“Everyone worked great together and I couldn’t be more happy,” Sleurs said.
