On August 16, 2020 at 2:55 AM, The Midway Fire Department, Town of Colonie Duty Crew, Colonie Village Fire Company, Stanford Heights and Niskayuna Fire District No.2 was dispatched to 51 Waterman Avenue. The caller reported the back of the house was fully involved.

Car sixteen arrived on scene and quickly declared the signal thirty for a working structure fire. Command had heavy fire pushing from the rear of the structure with the back deck fully involved along with the back of the house. Command reported the siding on the neighbors house was starting to catch fire. The duty crew engine, Stanford Heights, Colonie Village's Engines, Midway's Truck Company and engine quickly arrived on scene and deployed multiple hand lines into the structure. Firefighters immediately made entry to the structure and began to conduct a primary search of the residence. Additional firefighters made an aggressive interior attack pushing the fire back out of the building. Firefighters used a hand line in the rear of the structure and began to knock down all of the remaining fire on the outside of the structure and cooling the siding on the neighbors house.

Firefighters quickly were able to knock down all of the visible fire and bring the incident under control in less than 20 minutes. Firefighters conducted extensive overhaul on scene for over an hour and a half. No firefighters were injured on scene and investigators were brought in to conduct the investigation into what caused the fire.