On March 1, 2026, at 1:49 AM, multiple calls began to pour into the Rensselaer County Emergency Communication Center for a structure fire in the Griswold Heights Apartment building seven apartment thirty-three. Engine three, engine six, engine two, truck one, truck two, the rescue squad, medic four, medic three, and the battalion chief was dispatched to the scene the caller stated her apartment was on fire. Engine three arrived on scene with heavy fire showing from the roadway and immediately declared the signal thirty for a working structure fire. Police officers from the Troy Police Department were working rapidly to evacuate all of the attached apartments as heavy fire raged up the backside of the building into the roof of the structure and on the front side of the structure heavy fire was visible. Command was notified there was multiple victims from the fire on the other side of the structure in an adjacent building that needed assistance. The battalion chief immediately transmitted the second alarm bringing the City of Watervliet’s Fire Department, Watervliet Arsenal Fire Department, and the Green Island Fire Department to the scene.

Firefighters immediately deployed an inch and three-quarter hand line from engine three and called for water. As additional firefighters were arriving on scene, they immediately began to conduct rapid searches of the adjacent apartments. Firefighters not getting a response from the apartment next-door kicked in the front door of the building and rapidly began to conduct a search of the structure. With the fire lane filled with parked vehicles it made it difficult for additional fired apparatus to make entry into the fire lane causing the truck company to be stuck out on the roadway. Heavy fire rolled out of the windows of the apartment and thick black smoke pushed from the roof area. Firefighters made an aggressive push inside of the structure beginning to knock down a significant portion of the heavy fire.

Firefighters immediately made their way through the apartment and made their way to the second floor where they encountered heavy smoke with extreme amounts of heat pushing down on them from the fire below. Firefighters conducted a rapid primary search of the apartment and did not locate any victims. Troy firefighters made their way to the other side of the building and had begun to treat multiple burn victims including children. Firefighters from the truck company threw a ladder to the roof and immediately began to vent the fire building. Firefighters on the second floor of the structure began to conduct horizontal ventilation releasing a significant amount of heavy smoke from the second floor. The Town of Colonie’s Emergency Medical Services and Mohawk Ambulance Service was dispatched to the scene. Firefighters immediately continued to make an aggressive push inside of the structure as additional firefighters deployed a garden lay to the structure and another firefighter established a water supply at the fire hydrant nearby.

Police notified command that everybody in the apartments 31 through 37 had been safely evacuated. Medic three and Medic four unable to wait for additional ambulances to arrive on scene quickly loaded the two pediatric patients and the adult patient that were all burned from the fire and raced towards Albany Medical Center. The firefighters from engine four provided additional resources to those medical rigs to stabilize the burn victims. Firefighters were able to knock down all of the heavy fire condition inside of the apartment and began to conduct extensive overhaul. Firefighters conducted a secondary search of all the apartments assuring that all of the pets and occupants of the structure had escaped safely.

Fire Investigator‘s arrived on scene along with members of Troy Housing Authority, the city of Troy‘s code enforcement division, and city of Troy‘s Water Department. While on scene Troy Police officers checked on the occupants of the apartments on both sides of the fire apartment. Traffic on Project Road was shut down for an extended period of time while fire apparatus consumed the entire roadway. Fire Investigator’s made entry to the apartment and began to conduct their investigation into what caused the fire. At this time the three burn victims that had been rushed to Albany Medical Center two of the burn victims have been transferred to Westchester burn center in critical condition and the third victim is in stable condition.