Fire engulfs Marlboro home

By Mark Reynolds
Posted 1/22/20

The call on a structure fire that came in to the Marlboro Fire Department at 3:27 p.m. last Wednesday afternoon was truly frightening; there was a possibility that a child may be inside the residence …

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Fire engulfs Marlboro home

Posted

The call on a structure fire that came in to the Marlboro Fire Department at 3:27 p.m. last Wednesday afternoon was truly frightening; there was a possibility that a child may be inside the residence at 37 Grand St in Marlboro. The Fire Department was literally just down the street and upon arrival they found that the child had safely exited the building.

Marlboro firefighters were met with heavy smoke on the second story rear porch and in the kitchen area of the first floor of the home. By 3:42 p.m. the fire was knocked down and the cause has initially been determined to be accidental and appears to have been started on the porch, pending further investigation.

The Marlboro Company was assisted by the Milton Engine Company, the City of Newburgh Fire Department, the Town of Marlborough Police Department, Mobile Life Support Services, Central Hudson Gas & Electric, the American Red Cross, Ulster County Department of Emergency Services and the Ulster County Fire Investigation Unit.

Homeowner Linda Kovacs and her husband Fran were at the scene of the fire.

“There are two families that rent the house; the little boy and mother live upstairs and her son and girlfriend live downstairs. They are very nice people and wonderful tenants.”

Kovacs believes the home was built in the 1860s.

Marlboro Fire Chief Erick Masten pointed out that his crew was “hosed down” at the end of the fire call.

“In the fire service for the past 10 years they have done a lot of studies and they’ve come to conclude that the things that are burning and the smoke are causing cancer in firefighters. So we hose the guys off to get some of the carcinogens off of them,” Masten said. “When we get back to the fire house anybody who was in the fire and gets any stuff on them, we wash their gear to help prevent any unnecessary exposure. When they go home we tell them to take a shower.”