NEW SCOTLAND — An early morning fire Saturday killed a five-year-old girl, two men and one woman at a rural setting just off Route 155, Albany County Sheriff Craig D. Apple Sr. said.
The lone survivor is a 14-year-old boy who jumped from a second-story window, Apple said. He is being treated at Albany Medical Center for minor scrapes and bruises. The identities of the victims were not provided Saturday morning.
Apple, at the still-active fire scene at around 10 a.m., described to reporters a harrowing call from one of those inside the house at 64 Normanskill Road as the fire grew.
A woman in obvious distress called 911 at about 5:15 a.m., telling the dispatcher she and a small child were trapped in a room as the house burned, and couldn’t get out due to an air conditioner in the window. The dispatcher tried as best she could to try to help them find a way out. The woman in the house also couldn’t say where the other occupants were.
Sheriff’s deputies and emergency medical personnel arrived within minutes but the house was engulfed in flames, he said. At that point the boy was able to get out.
As well as the girl, the other victims were a 35-year-old man, a 40-year-old woman and 64-year-old man, Apple said. Their bodies have been removed and autopsies will be performed on Monday.
“It’s a horrible scene,” the sheriff said. “I feel horribly for the family, the neighbors. They are all related up in this area. The street at one point, it was all their family.”
Peer support is being made available to firefighters and other responders, Apple said. Among the departments responding were New Salem, which covered the district where the fire happened, Delmar, Westmere, Voorheesville, Elsmere, Slingerlands, McKownville, Selkirk and North Bethlehem.
The cause of the fire will be investigated through the…
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