ALBANY, NY - On February 15th at 7:15 P.M., the city of Albany’s Emergency Communication Center received a transfer call for a reported structure fire from the Rensselaer County Emergency Communication Center at 263 Northern Boulevard. Engine 2, Rescue 2, Truck 2, Engine 1, the rescue squad, Engine 5, Mohawk Ambulance Service and the battalion chief responded to the scene. The caller reported a possible basement fire and that there was a language barrier.

With Arbor Hills Firehouse directly around the corner from the incident, firefighters quickly arrived on scene with smoke showing from the basement of the building and transmitted the Signal 30 for a working structure fire. Engine 2’s crew pulled a hand line to the front of the building, deployed it into the front of the house and attempted to locate the door leading to the basement. As firefighters conducted a primary search of the building, they learned that they had to pull out of the building and make their way around the side, as the only entranceway to the basement was in the rear of the structure. As firefighters made their way down into the basement, they had heavy smoke pushing out of the doorway with extreme heat down in the basement and visibility near zero.

Command requested a mechanic to respond to the scene, as they were having problems with one of the primary engines, and requested an additional engine to the scene. Command requested firefighters on the exterior portion of the structure to begin to vent the windows as firefighters in the basement had zero visibility and high temperatures. Command was notified by the police department that there was possible entrapment still inside of the building. Firefighters quickly made their way to the second-floor of the building and continued to search the first-floor while firefighters in the basement continued to push towards the seat of the fire.

Firefighters in the basement requested the line to be charged and the pressure to be increased. As firefighters were continuing to push deeper into the basement, heavy fire blew out the windows of the structure from the basement windows. Firefighters opened up the hand line inside of the structure and began to knock down some of the superheated gases to prevent the smoke from igniting. Command on the exterior portion of the structure notified them that they had good fire showing still from the exterior portion of the structure from the Alpha-Delta side. Firefighters in the basement continued to make an aggressive push towards the seat of the fire. Firefighters on the first-floor notified command that they had a hole that had burned through the floor. Firefighters continued to make an aggressive push in the basement even though they had zero visibility and heavy fire still pushing from the basement windows.

Command notified the interior crew that conditions were continuing to deteriorate from the exterior portion of the structure, and that he now had heavy fire showing from the Bravo side windows of the basement. Firefighters in the basement notified command that it had become extremely hot, and command notified them that if they were not making any progress in the next two minutes, they were pulling them from the structure. Firefighters on the first-floor and second-floor notified command that everybody was out of the structure and the search was negative. Command checked on the firefighters in the basement and notified them to evacuate the structure, as they were going to hit it from the windows from the exterior portion of the structure. Firefighters quickly regrouped in the rear of the structure and notified command that they were all out of the building.

A par check was conducted, and firefighters utilized hand lines from the exterior portion of the structure and knocked down the heavy fire in the basement. As soon as firefighters had the fire knocked down from the exterior portion of the structure and conditions became more favorable, firefighters made their way down into the basement and finished knocking down all of the remaining fire. Firefighters made their way inside of the structure and conducted a secondary search of the building, making sure there was no one inside. Firefighters in the basement began to conduct extensive overhaul, as the heavy fire condition caused significant damage.

The police department on scene conducted their investigation into the fire by interviewing multiple residents from the building. No injuries were reported, and firefighters remained on scene for an extended period of time.