7 homeless, 2 injured in Mont Pleasant blaze that began in kitchen

PHOTOGRAPHER: Justin Mason

A fire that began in cooking oil gutted the first-floor kitchen of a Pennsylvania Avenue two-family home, injuring one city firefighter and leaving seven tenants homeless Friday. A cat and dog died in the fire.

The blaze was reported at 820 Pennsylvania Ave. around 8:30 p.m. and had already spread throughout the kitchen by the time firefighters arrived. Deputy Chief Rod Rosate said the fire was touched off when a first-floor resident was fry cooking something in the kitchen and forgot she had left the oil on a burner.

“Eventually it ignited and caught the kitchen on fire,” he said Saturday. “And once [oil] catches fire, it really takes off.”

Flames then spread up the side of the building to the attic.

“The guys knocked it knocked down pretty quick,” Rosate said, knocking it down in about a half-hour.

But the fire had already caused extensive damage to the first floor of the building. The second floor sustained smoke and heat damage, forcing all of the building’s tenants to vacate.

A firefighter sustained a shoulder injury from a piece of furniture that fell on him. The firefighter’s name was not released.

Rosate said firefighters also discovered a cat and small dog that appeared to have died of smoke inhalation.

Rosate said a tenant sustained burns to her hands and face and was hospitalized.

Members of the American Red Cross of Northeastern New York were called to aid to two families. The agency indicated it was assisting six adults and one child.

Rosate said the fire has been ruled accidental. He said the building sustained significant damage, but that it is salvageable.

“It’s going to take some work to be rehabbed, but it can be done,” he said.