One of the most devastating fires in recent memory destroyed a large truck garage and an estimated $1 million in vehicles and equipment in Bramanville last Wednesday night.
The garage, on Arrow Drive, belonged to the Clifford Hay Trucking Company. It housed four tractor-trailers, other vehicles and thousands of gallons of fuel. All were lost in the fire.
“It was something,” said Cobleskill Fire Chief Rich Cooper. “Flames were shooting 200 or 300 feet in the air.”
“I’ve never seen anything like it here,” added Schoharie County Fire Coordinator Matt Brisley.
The fire was spotted and reported at 11:35pm by a passerby, Jim Mallia, who “saw flames in the eaves,” according to Mr. Brisley.
The Cobleskill Fire Department arrived minutes later, and by then, the garage was fully involved.
Firefighters learned that a tank truck inside contained 6,000 gallons of home-heating fuel and 700 gallons of kerosene, making the fire even more dangerous.
“When Chief Cooper told me the fuel tanker was inside, that changed the plans,” Mr. Brisley said.
“It’s not something you expect when you roll up to a garage fire.”
“We had some trouble––the fuel oil, trucks, tires stored there––and we didn’t have enough foam in the county to stop it,” added Chief Cooper.
Officials called in the Stratton Air National Guard Fire Department from Scotia, and a team brought an airport crash truck that sprayed foam on the burning fuel.
“They blasted it about four times with foam, and that helped a lot,” Chief Cooper said.
The county Fire Investigation Team and state investigators haven’t determined a cause of the fire and probably won’t, Mr. Brisley said.
“As far as we know, it will probably go into the books as undetermined,” he said. “It doesn’t look suspicious at all.
“We can’t rule out anything, though, so it’s undetermined.”
Inside were four Peterbilt tractor-trailers, the fuel tanker, several Harley-Davidson motorcycles, a horse trailer and a four-wheeler, Mr. Brisley said.
“Just the stuff on wheels, at least $1 million,” he said, assessing the damage. “And that doesn’t count the building itself, tools, the fuel and other stuff.”
Another concern was the fuel spilling into nearby Cobleskill Creek.
Chief Cooper said the state Department of Environmental Conservation Spill Response Team was at the blaze along with the HazMat team to control the fuel.
Departments from Carlisle, Esperance, Central Bridge, Schoharie, Middleburgh, Richmondville and Sharon Springs were at the scene, and Gallupville and Burtonsville were on stand-by.
The departments stayed at the fire until about 4:30am Thursday, though Cobleskill firefighters remained there through much of the day.
There were no injuries.