High winds stoke fire on Route 97

By TOM KANE

NARROWSBURG, NY ¾ Brian Purcell was smoking beef jerky in his smoke house and went to town on a brief errand on May 3.

When he heard the sirens in town minutes later, he saw the fire truck head up Route 97 toward his property. When he arrived there, his three buildings were on fire. The flames, blown by the winds, were licking the tops of the trees. The heat was intense. Luckily, the firefighters could get close to the house since the wind was blowing the flames and smoke in the other direction.

“The winds were unusually strong coming from the north,” Purcell said. “I worried about the nearby house right next to my property downwind. Luckily, the firemen stopped the flames from spreading in time.”

Embers from his smoke house, urged by the wind, somehow got into the brush and spread to the building next to it. The flames leaped in seconds from that building to the next.

“The shack was unoccupied and the third building was a barn,” he said.

No one was in the buildings and no one was injured. All three buildings were ruined. Purcell’s residence, on the same property, was also not on the windward side and was spared.

Route 97 was closed in both directions last Thursday for about an hour because of the blaze.