ALBANY — A massive fire is burning at the old Doane Stuart school campus near Southern Boulevard Thursday evening, firefighters said.
Smoke and flames could be seen from across the river in Rensselaer County as a column of smoke rose above Albany’s South End. As darkness fell, the flames lit up the sky. The smell of smoke was heavy in the areas nearby.
City firefighters quickly deemed the fire too dangerous to fight from inside the burning structure and they have set up a “defensive posture” to pour water on the flames and try to prevent the fire from spreading. Firefighters were expressing concern for safety as a steeple appeared to be ready to collapse.
Travelers were being told to avoid Southern Boulevard.
The building has been vacant since the private school moved to Rensselaer in 2009.
Doane Stuart was previously housed in the stately 19th-century building of the former Kenwood Academy, a private Catholic school in south Albany. It was forced to move after the Society of the Sacred Heart, which owned the facility, rebuffed its offer to buy the campus for $7 million.
A developer bought the site with plans to renovate it with plans that called for 13 apartment buildings, six clusters of townhomes, two hotels as well as space for retail and public facilities like an art gallery and amphitheater.
But little progress was made and the property. The Times Union reported last year that the developer was attempting to sell the property as part of a bankruptcy proceeding.
In an email to the Times Union, the faculty, staff,…
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