WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – Two people are in the hospital after a fire ripped through a Watertown apartment building.
Crews responded to a multi-family home at 122 Winslow Street just before 11 a.m. It was the type of fire Watertown Fire Chief Matt Timerman says the city doesn’t see very often.
“In a city, normally people are able to identify that there’s a fire a fire pretty early,” Chief Timerman said. “So, it’s unusual for us to get dispatched to a house that’s totally on fire. It’s even more unusual for it to happen during the day, and even more unusual for it to happen a block away from Washington Street.”
When firefighters arrived on scene, the apartment house was engulfed in flames. A short time later, the second story of the house collapsed.
Watertown Police Detective Sergeant Joe Giaquinto says there were four people in the home at the time of the fire. T
Three people were taken to Samaritan Medical Center for treatment. Two of them were later flown to a Syracuse hospital with serious burns.
One person was treated at the scene.
“At this time everybody is accounted for,” Giaquinto told 7 News.
A witness on the scene said he saw one person badly injured from the flames.
At one point, a dog was carried out of the home and given oxygen before being taken to an ambulance. Chief Timerman says a number of pets were rescued and is hopeful more would be found alive.
Fire crews were on scene for more than three hours. The flames were so severe, a majority of the extinguishing had to be done from the outside.
“We started an advance up into the second floor,” Timerman said. “We got up there and it was not sustainable. We could not stay up there to fight the fire. It was too far advanced.”
That wasn’t the only issue crews ran into. Initially, Timerman says the water pressure from nearby fire hydrants was low. A portion of Washington Street was shut down as fire hoses lined the sidewalks.
“I don’t know if it was a matter of some hydrants were frozen, or for some reason we had low pressure, or mechanical problems. Not sure yet,” Timerman said.
The cause of the fire is under investigation and it’s unclear if there were working smoke detectors in the home. State Fire has been called in to help.
Copyright 2022 WWNY. All rights reserved.
