Firefighters battle blaze in extreme heat in Verplanck

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Officials say they got the call about a fire at 127 Sixth St. in Verplanck around 12:30 p.m. Monday. The Verplanck Fire Department got to the scene within minutes, with mutual aid from Buchanan, Montrose and VA fire departments. The tenant of the home tells News12 that the fire was an accident. "I was in my backyard smoking a lit cigarette and I flicked it into the recycling bin that we have in the back on the porch," she says. The embers fell on dry leaves, which is a dangerous combination. It sparked the fire that engulfed the back porch, before making its way into the kitchen. Both those areas were destroyed, while smoke damaged the rest of the home. Two members of the family were able to escape unharmed. Officials say extreme heat did not contribute to the cause of the fire, but very much effected the emergency response. The Verplanck fire chief says in temperatures north of 90 degrees, they typically call a second alarm as a precaution, so that firefighters can be relieved. "What we do is, we pull crews in and out and refresh people, have people go to rehab, sit down, have some water, have a cool towel, have an ice pop, and we keep rotating crews and that's why we contacted the second alarm," said Verplanck Fire Department Assistant Chief Holly Haight. Nick Bleakely lives a few houses down, and is a former Verplanck firefighter. "It is challenging with the gear being on but we get through it, we train our body to deal with the heat," he said. The fire gear weighs between 60 to 80 pounds, but a steady flow of water kept the 60 or so firefighters refreshed, and they were able to put the fire out in about two and a half hours. "