On July 22, 2022, at 1:39PM, The city of Troy Police mechanic came on the radio and notified the dispatcher at the Rensselaer County Emergency Communication Center that he had a heavy smoke condition coming from a house near the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Congress Street. At that exact moment the dispatcher‘s at the Rensselaer County Emergency Communication Center began taking multiple phone calls for 1639 5th Ave. with multiple reports of heavy smoke pushing from the third floor.

The alarm of fires tone dropped across the City of Troy. Engine two, engine four, engine six, engine three, truck one, truck two, medic four, the rescue squad, and the battalion chief was immediately dispatched to the scene. Engine four quickly race across the city coming from another call and arrived on scene and confirmed they had a working structure fire with heavy smoke pushing from the third floor of the structure and immediately transmitted the signal thirty. The battalion chief arrived on scene and immediately began to assess the fire scene and notified the dispatcher to transmit the second alarm as he had exposure issues on the delta side of the structure.

Firefighters from engine four immediately deployed a inch and three-quarter hand line to the third floor of the structure. As firefighters made their way to the top of the landing, they had heavy fire and smoke banking down onto them. Firefighters from the truck company immediately made their way to the roof where they had a heavy fire condition running the cockloft. Firefighters began vertical ventilation on the structure. Additional firefighters quickly began to arrive on scene from the multiple stations throughout the city of Troy. Additional resources from the second alarm assignment that brings the Watervliet Arsenal Fire Department and the City of Albany’s fire department to the scene.

Firefighters from the rescue squad deployed a K-12 rescue saw to the bravo side of the structure where they had a Bilco door to the basement that was locked. The firefighter from the squad began to cut the door off to gain access to the basement. As soon as the door was cut thick brown smoke began to push from the door area. Command had firefighters on scene begin to pull the basement windows to clear up the heavy smoke condition to give firefighters better visibility while working. Firefighters also deployed another inch and three-quarter handline down to the basement.

Firefighters made entry to the adjacent structure to the home to make sure that there was no smoke or fire that had made its way into the second building. Firefighters on the third floor conducted an aggressive interior attack quickly driving back the heavy fire condition. Firefighters on the other floors conducted a primary search of the building and was able to notify command that everybody was out of the building. As firefighters continued to make an aggressive interior attack on the third floor, firefighters on scene began to pull a part other parts of the house. Within 10 minutes firefighters had the entire bulk of the fire knocked down. Additional resources from the city of Albany’s Fire Department arrived on scene.
As firefighters made their way outside of the structure, they immediately took a breather and cooled off as temperatures outside were hovering around 100°F with the heat index.

Firefighters continued to conduct overhaul for an extended period of time on the building. The building suffered heavy damage to the third floor and the other portions of the house suffered smoke and water damage. No firefighters were injured on scene while battling the fire. Fire Investigators are working to determine the cause of the fire.