COLONIE - Firefighters were called in early Wednesday morning to snuff out the second suspicious blaze this year at the abandoned Delaware and Hudson locomotive shop building.
Crews from six area fire departments responded around 2:30 a.m. to battle flames and smoke at the partly demolished building off Lincoln Avenue bordering Watervliet.
Fire officials fought flames shooting from the roof and sides of the structure.
After gaining control of the blaze, it took crews hours to locate and put out any hot spots around the facility, which is owned by Guilford Rail System based in Billerica, Mass., which operates the Boston and Maine, the Maine Central and Springfield Terminal railroads, and and has been closed since the 1980s. Guilford owned the D&H before it was cast off into banruptcy in the 1980s. The D&H is a component of the Canadian Pacific Railway, which did not purchase the yard and shop facility.
No one was inside the building when firefighters arrived and there were no injuries as a result of the blaze, which was deemed suspicious and called a crime scene by authorities.
Fire officials did not release a cause of the blaze by late Wednesday afternoon.
Wednesday's fire marks the fourth time in four years that the property has been ravaged by a series of severe and suspicious fires at the hands of loitering teenagers, with the last time being on March 21. The intense smoke forced some nearby residents to evacuate their homes that day.
During that incident, roughly 80 to 100 emergency workers and 18 fire trucks spent the weekend gaining control over a fire that created a thick fog in the Watervliet neighborhood that borders the massive, boarded-up building.
Ironically, on May 3, 2001, and 2003, there were fires at the site.
For years, the property has been known as a place for local teenagers to hang out and party. The owners say they've spent $50,000 to board up the facility, but kids still find ways to break in and wreak havoc.
Before it closed, locomotives were repaired in the building.
In 1998, the Schuyler Heights Fire Department set the building on fire for a training exercise and black ash that contained asbestos fell on roofs and in yards as far east as Troy.
The asbestos was found to be from material on the burned-out building's roof and the company paid for any damages. |
