N.Y. Firefighters Take 'Good Beating' in Flashover

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Dec. 04--TROY -- In the middle of his uncle's funeral, Chad LaBello learned that a fire was threatening his mother's house.

LaBello and other relatives raced to 696 5th Ave. in Troy. They arrived to find 20-foot flames flaring out of the two-family house next door at 698 5th Ave.

Ignoring firefighters who tried to stop him, LaBello broke down the door of his mother's home and raced inside to find her dog, Daisy, a miniature schnauzer he had given her after the death of his father in 2002. Through thick smoke, he called the dog's name, then scrambled under a bed. He found Daisy and carried her outside.

With the amount of smoke inside, the pet likely would have died, he said. "I knew what the dog meant to my mother, he said.

Crystal Maple owns the house at 698 5th Ave., where she lived with her husband and three children. The fire started there at 2:15 p.m. Sunday.

"I just got out of the shower, and my son told me there was smoke coming into my house," she said. Everyone escaped unharmed, as did her upstairs tenant.

A house at 700 5th Ave. suffered smoke and water damage too, but it was vacant.

Fire Chief Thomas Garrett said the cause of the blaze is under investigation. It began at the back of 698 5th Ave., but the chief could not immediately say on which floor of the two-story building it started because the damage was so heavy.

While no firefighters were injured, Garrett said, "the fire did flash over them when they were on the inside. They took a good beating in there, but they're OK."

While trying to battle the blaze moving from the front of the house to the back, he said, flames shot over their heads and they moved back out. Maple's house was a total loss, he said, but the LaBello home should be livable.

Chad LaBello is a contractor who installed stone on the front of his mother's home this year for Mother's Day, with a photo of her late husband and a tribute to him and other Lansingburgh veterans. He said he will inspect the house and repair any of the damage himself.

Reach Tim O'Brien at 454-5092 or [email protected].