Cause Of Massive Peekskill Fire A Mystery: Chief

PEEKSKILL, NY — No one knows how Sunday night's fire — where a whole apartment building under construction went up in a conflagration visible for miles — started. The Westchester County Cause and Origin Team was on the scene overnight, and issued a ruling of "undetermined" on Monday.

"The cause is undetermined because there's nothing left to investigate," 1st Assistant Fire Chief Michael Sniffen told Patch.

The Peekskill Fire Department, which was called to the construction site fire at 10:40 p.m., left the scene at 10:30 a.m., but was called back when smoke and flames became visible in the wreckage.

No one was injured, but a great deal of equipment was damaged in the intense heat. The lights melted on on a ladder truck and a pumper, he said. The ladder truck's windshield shattered from the heat. "Plus we lost 800 feet of hose," Sniffen said.

About 150 firefighters from Peekskill and nearly a dozen neighboring communities fought the blaze, which was Peekskill's second fire of the evening. The first was a house fire on Nelson Avenue. They prevented the flames from spreading to the houses nearby.

The massive blaze, which was visible for miles, rained burning pieces of wood on the neighborhood.

"Many residents helped each other to keep calm and make it out quickly," said nearby resident Lillian Cortes-Guzman.

The site sits atop a hill overlooking downtown Peekskill and the Hudson River.

The fire destroyed the senior living community being built by Trinity Associates LLC. It would be the company's second planned senior living facility in Peekskill.

With the first, the Drum Hill Senior Living Community, the firm rescued the historic and abandoned Drum Hill School on Ringgold Street.

The Westchester County-based company has completed projects up and down the Hudson Valley from Hyde Park to Yonkers.

SEE ALSO: Fire Destroys Peekskill Apartment Building Under Construction