The Daily Mail has a piece on a pair of early morning February 13 emergency events in the Jefferson Heights section of Catskill where on the one hand, firefighters worked to move more than a dozen senior residents of The Eliot senior residence after a sprinkler malfunction, while on the other, a devastating blaze erupted just blocks away two hours later, destroying a home and garaged vehicle. A pipe for the Jefferson Heights senior residence’s emergency sprinkler system burst Sunday morning around 2:15 a.m., causing water to rain down in some residents’ rooms and between 12 and 14 residents to be relocated to neighboring rooms. But before that job was finished, fire officials said, their equipment and personnel was needed nearby at 24 North Jefferson Avenue, where a fire erupted at about 4 a.m. in a two-story residence where two occupants were evacuated before the second floor was fully engulfed. Those occupants, a mother and daughter, were then transported from the scene by Catskill Ambulance and brought to Columbia Memorial Hospital in Hudson for treatment.


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Catskill Fire Chief Jonathan Dees said the county’s cause and origin team found that a kerosene heater had ignited a breathing tube attached to an oxygen tank. Though no explosion was reported, Dees said the women were lucky not to be severely injured. The home and a car that was garaged were completely destroyed, Dees said, adding that two cats who were reported living in the residence could not be located Sunday. The fire was extinguished after about five hours and the scene was cleared by 11:30 a.m. The women are reportedly now staying with relatives nearby.