Potter Avenue fire destroys garage, truck

potter-ave-fireBy Jaime Thomas

A quick response by local crews stopped a garage fire from spreading to a house early Thursday morning.

Firefighters were called to the scene of a structure fire at 6 Potter Ave. just before 1 a.m., and Granville Police were already on scene upon arrival.

Granville Fire Chief Ryan Pedone said 20 to 30-foot flames were coming off of the garage, which was in the back of a residence, upon arrival and a pickup truck out front was ablaze as well.

The strong heat had also melted some of the siding of a home at 8 Potter Ave. and cracked a window. Pedone said a team went into the house to fight the blaze and were able to stop it from extending into the home.

“There was very, very minimal damage to the house,” he said. He said crews were able to knock down the house and garage fire before the truck outside.

“There was gas coming out of the truck; we spent a lot of time with that,” he said. Both the garage and truck were total losses. Pedone said the cause of the fire appeared to be electrical with an appliance shorting out.

NYSEG was on scene to disconnect power because the fire had been in the house. The blaze was out within about 40 minutes, and firefighters were on scene for a couple more hours.

Pedone acknowledged that there have been an unusually high number of fires in the area in recent weeks but said he can’t pinpoint why.

“We’re not used to this many. The call volume keeps going up and up and up,” he said.

Winter weather was once again a factor in Thursday’s fire.

“It makes it hard at this time of year; all the elements are against us,” he said. However, he praised his own department and mutual aid crews for their quick work.

“There was great teamwork by everyone involved. We were able to stop it from spreading into the house and causing further damage, and we stopped it from spreading to 8 Potter Ave.,” Pedone said.

In addition to the Granville Fire Department, departments from Middle Granville, North Granville and West Pawlet were on scene, as was Granville EMS.