LAKE CLEAR - Firefighters from five local departments spent nine hours Wednesday night battling the blaze that claimed the home of a Lake Clear couple.
The Saranac Lake Volunteer Fire Department was called out at 5:43 p.m. Wednesday and remained on scene until 2:21 this morning. Teams and trucks from Tupper Lake, Paul Smiths/Gabriels, Bloomingdale and Lake Placid joined them throughout the evening.
The home was owned by Roy Hurd, a local musician, and Amy Kohanski, who co-owns Nori's Village Market in Saranac Lake.
Kohanski was on the scene at about 6 p.m. Wednesday watching the fire, and she contacted both her son and Hurd by cell phone from the side of the road.
The building, on Station Road, a small turn-off from Fish Hatchery Road, was more than 100 years old, said Mike Puccini, a neighbor who was watching the fire from the side of the road Wednesday evening. Puccini said Hurd bought the home from his aunt in about 2004 or '05, after the death of his uncle.
Both his uncle and Hurd put a lot of work into the house, Puccini said. He said it used to be a school house that his grandmother attended in the early 1900s.
"To have this happen, it's unbelievable," Puccini said. "It's really a shame."
The house had a pile of firewood next to it, which Puccini said he feared may have helped the fire along.
Saranac Lake sent four trucks and 33 members to the fire, and Lake Placid sent two trucks and 21 members. Numbers could not be obtained from Tupper Lake, Paul Smiths-Gabriels or Bloomingdale by press time.
Volunteers at the Saranac Lake department said this morning that an investigation is being conducted into the cause of the fire.
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Contact Jessica Collier at 891-2600 ext. 25 or jcollier@adirondackdailyenterprise.com.
