WEST CHAZY —
Firefighters saved a two-story house from a fire that destroyed an adjacent garage Wednesday afternoon.
At 12:59 p.m., Clinton County Fire Control received a report of a burning garage at 183 Recore Road, the residence of Corey St. Hilaire.
West Chazy Fire Chief Dave Lucia, one of the first to arrive at the fire, said the swift work of nearly 35 firefighters saved St. Hilaire's home, which sits close to the garage.
"The garage was fully involved when we got there," he said. "And it was starting to melt the siding (on the home), but we were able to stop it from spreading to the house."
The fire was called in by St. Hilaire's wife, Melinda, who said she smelled smoke early in the day, Lucia said.
"She thought it was the neighbors burning something. But at about 1 p.m., she heard a noise — a pop, like an explosion — and she saw the fire."
Firefighters from West Chazy, Chazy and Beekmantown joined forces to extinguish the flames engulfing the two-stall garage, while firefighters from Altona stood by at the West Chazy station.
"Within a half-hour, we had it knocked down," Lucia said. "But we had a lot of overhaul because there was a lot of stuff in the garage. (Corey St. Hilaire) loved doing carpentry, so he had a lot of equipment in there. He also had wood projects going and had things for that. He lost a lot of (his equipment)."
The garage, which Lucia said is insured, is a total loss. Additionally, the St. Hilaires's snowmobile and Sea-Doo watercraft were badly damaged by the fire.
Vinyl siding on the corner of the home closest to the garage will need to be repaired.
The heat from the blaze cracked a window in the home.
Luckily, Lucia said, no one was injured.
"It could have been a lot worse," he said.
The family, which includes at least one young child, can live in the home, Lucia said.
Clinton County Fire Investigators determined that the fire began in an area of the garage where Corey St. Hilaire had been using wood stain and rags the prior evening.
Investigators determined the cause to be spontaneous combustion of the stain and some stain-soaked rags, Lucia said.
— By Contributing Writer Casey Ryan Vock
