Volunteers from more than a dozen different fire departments were called to fight a raging Main Street, Schoharie blaze shortly after 5am Wednesday.
One person died in the fire, another is receiving emergency assistance from the Red Cross and is eligible for veterans' services.
Police are not yet identifying the deceased resident.
The fire at 385 Main Street, near the Schoharie County DPW, forced State Police at the scene to reroute traffic from both directions; busses from Schoharie Central School were also rerouted over backroads.
According to firefighters at the scene, the two-story two-family Colonial was fully involved when they arrived and the second floor of the building collapsed shortly after that.
The Cobleskill Fire Department’s aerial ladder truck was called in because of a reported entrapment.
Visible flames had been extinguished at 6:30am, but the scene was still considered active and few other details were available at press time; scorch marks surrounded missing windows on the south side of the home.
Among the squads responding to the call were Schoharie, Middleburgh, Cobleskill, Gallupville, Esperance, Central Bridge, and Scho-Wright, along with the County’s FAST Team and fire coordinators.
Among the departments on standby were Huntersland, Livingstonville, Berne, and Quaker Street.