Local family displaced by weekend blaze

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February 24, 2008

By ANDREA VanVALKENBURG The Press Republican Mon Feb 25, 2008, 01:00 AM EST

FORT COVINGTON -- A local family is now staying with relatives after their Route 42 home was destroyed by fire early Saturday morning.

Neighbors said Cindy Slyman owns the single-story residence that erupted in flames around 3:30 a.m. Saturday, prompting crews from six area departments to descend on the rural family home at 90 Route 42.

Within minutes, as thick smoke and flames tore through the home where Slyman lived with her son, daughter-in-law and their four children, more than three-dozen volunteers arrived to begin dousing the fire.

"It was fully engulfed when we got there, and the inside was pretty well gutted," Fort Covington Fire Chief Bob Hosler said Sunday afternoon.

Slyman's neighbor, Laura French, said she awoke that morning to find the bright emergency lights shining through the windows of her home across the street.

As volunteers from the Fort Covington, Bangor, Hogansburg, Bombay, Constable and Westville departments began fighting the blaze, French said she ran outside to check on her neighbors.

"I just wanted to make sure that they were OK," she said Sunday afternoon, a few hours after she combed through her daughter's bedroom and collected some clothing to donate to one of the children.

Hosler said Red Cross officials had been notified about the fire but believed that the family was staying with relatives as they began to recover from the loss.

French said they lost all of their possessions in the fire.

"It's just so sad," she said as she thought about the cherished belongings and everyday supplies the family lost in the fire.

Some volunteers were at the charred and blackened home for nearly eight hours as they secured the area and began to investigate the blaze.

Hosler, who could not be reached for comment Saturday, said the Franklin County Cause and Origin Team was continuing to investigate the blaze Sunday afternoon.

The Slymans could not be reached for comment, and no additional information about the fire was immediately available.

avanvalkenburg@pressrepublican.com