Another house fire in Poughkeepsie displaces 6; units deemed unfit for human occupancy
Virginia Innes' family and neighbors were sloshing through 2 inches of water throughout the home Thursday morning, helping her salvage some of her belongings from her apartment and look for her five cats.
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Poughkeepsie firefighters quickly managed and put out the city's third house fire in two weeks, this time displacing four adults and two children, ages 2 and 4.
Virginia Innes' family and neighbors were sloshing through 2 inches of water throughout the home on Hooker Avenue Thursday morning, helping her salvage some of her belongings from her apartment and look for her five cats.
Everything was thoroughly soaked because firefighters had to douse a fire on the roof earlier that morning.
"I have to find a new place to live because I'm not going to be able to come back here," Innes said as she sorted through her dresser, trying to avoid several steady streams of water coming through her ceiling. "They tore out all my windows and everything."
Poughkeepsie firefighters quickly knocked down the fire.
City officials said the fire might be connected to work that was being done on the roof Wednesday night.
All seven units in the home are now unlivable and the property has been boarded up.
Innes managed to save her laptop and she found one of her cats, "Stitch."
She is now looking for a new housing whose landlord would accept her federal housing voucher.
After five years living at the Hooker Avenue home, she feels as though she is starting over.
"This is my home," she said tearfully, seeming to still be in disbelief. "Like, where am I going to go? This is my home, you know?"
Representatives from the Red Cross were on scene Thursday, setting the tenants up in hotel rooms for a few days while they recover and figure out their next moves.
News 12 reached out to the property owner to ask whether the 75-year-old home can be saved, and is awaiting a response.
City officials said one firefighter suffered a minor burn, and is OK.
Other than that, there were no physical injuries, officials said.
