At 3:07pm Tuesday afternoon, Nanuet FD was alerted to respond to a reported structure fire in the area of 22 E Charles St. Living only a short distance away, Asst Chief Todd Giraudin (8-3) was on scene less than a minute later and confirmed a working fire in the attic of #18 E Charles.
Chief AJ Knapp (8-1) instructed crews from first arriving 8-EQ, led by Captain Billy Schoenleber, to stretch an attack handline into the house, and crews from second arriving 8-1500 to go to the roof and ventilate the fire.
Upon entering the house, crews discovered a caged dog and were able to remove it from the building before it was overcome by smoke. The homeowner, who was at work at a local business at the time, was grateful for the Volunteers' efforts to rescue the dog and keep the fire contained to only a small portion of the attic.
"It could have been much worse." said firefighter Mark Perlowitz, who was driving second due pumper 8-1500. "If nobody had been around to call 911, much more of the house could have been damaged."
Heavy rain poured down as firefighters took the extra time to affix plastic tarps to the roof of the single family home to prevent further water damage.
All units returned to normal service roughly 2 hours later.
Audio and video from this fire is available on the Audio/Video page.
