Firehouse set on fire in Vermont. Albany VFD apparatus heavily damaged.
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More details on the fire from Glenn Usdin’s FireTruckBlog.com
“When we seen flames coming out of engine one, we knew we had problems,” said Albany Volunteer Fire Chief Donald Peters.
The station was engulfed in flames in a matter of minutes. Later that morning, firefighters said fighting their own fire was a challenge — as their equipment burned inside.”You know everything’s right there to fight the fire but you just can’t get to it,” said Albany Fire Asst. Chief Josh Pilbin.
“We did get this door open. The only thing we had to fight the fires was fire extinguishers and we used them up,” Chief Peters said.
Firefighters from Craftsbury, Irasburg and Orleans rushed over to help knock out the fire that left engine one completely destroyed. “It’s a truck we’ve had since the 70’s — it was ordered brand new,” Chief Peters said.
And it’s not just the station that has been devastated. Police say it appears the fire was intentionally set.
Albany firefighters responded to an activated smoke alarm at their fire station on Main Street about 1:15 a.m., Detective Sgt. David Sutton said.
Fire Chief Donald Peters Sr. said one fire truck was in flames. The flames spread within the fire station, police said. Then the quandary came into play: Everything was so hot, and darkened with the smoke, the firefighters couldn’t get into the building to get their equipment to put out the blaze.
Doors eventually were smashed. Fire extinguishers near the door were used to contain some flames, while mutual aid responded from volunteer fire departments in Craftsbury, Irasburg and Orleans.
Peters said several neighbors reported they heard a four-wheel sport vehicle leave the station shortly before it was engulfed in flames. Neighbors described it as a dark-colored vehicle and it headed south on Vermont 14.
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