TROY -- A lingering smell of smoke hung over the charred remains of an old abandoned warehouse Sunday afternoon in the wake of an early morning fire that tore through the city-owned building located in an industrial area along Madison Street.
No one was reported injured in the blaze, which officials said was large enough to be seen for miles around and left only a shell of the structure standing.
The cause remains under investigation.
A motorist on Interstate 787 called in the blaze at approximately 3 a.m. Troy firefighters responded to the scene within minutes and found the brick building engulfed in flames.
"The fire was fully involved when they arrived," said Troy Fire Department Battalion Chief John Hughs, whose crew relieved Chief Ed Cummings' once the fire was under control. "It is a remote spot. For anyone to see it at that time in the morning, it would have to be a heavy fire.
Firefighters were on the scene for more than seven hours, but a full investigation into the cause of the blaze had to be postponed because officials deemed the scene unsafe. Portions of a free-standing wall surrounded the hot debris, prompting fire officials to keep equipment stationed at the scene.
"The hoses are keeping the hot spots down, but we can't go pulling things around because of the condition of the building," Hughs said. "The walls present a definite danger, and it's not worth getting anyone hurt."
The roof of the warehouse collapsed, and the blaze spread to the underside of an adjoining multilevel building that was empty except for a large pile of logs.
Hughs said three hoses were fed through the windows and the flames were extinguished before structural damage could occur. Four nearby warehouses were not damaged.
"If the large building caught on fire it would have been bad," Hughs said. "Our guys hit it hard and cut the fire off. They did a good job of keeping it from extending."
