Tuesday, March 17, 2015

MAN BURNED IN MARGARETVILLE, NY GARAGE EXPLOSION. FLOOR WAS BLOWN UP, GARAGE DOOR BLEW INTO THE STREET AND THERE WAS A JEEP ON ITS SIDE FROM THE EXPLOSION








MARCH 16, 2015

MARGARETVILLE, NEW YORK

A man was badly burned in a series of explosions in a garage on Route 30 just outside of the village of Margaretville in Delaware County on Monday, March 16. In between blasts, two of the man’s neighbors, Allen Misner and Cody Ackerly, helped drag him to safely as the garage burned.

The man, whom we are not identifying until more information about his condition is released, was severely injured, Misner, Ackerly and other witnesses at the scene report.

The first explosion happened around 12:15 p.m. on Monday at 42463 Route 30, and blew the door off the garage into the street.

Misner, who works at B&D Motors, a garage and car dealership in Margaretville, was taking a client for a test drive along Route 30 when he passed the garage around 12:15 p.m. He saw smoke coming from the building and the garage's door lying in the middle of the highway.

Cody Acklerly, a neighbor whose family once owned the garage, ran down from his nearby house to join Misner at the scene. As the men stood there, they could hear the homeowner yelling for help from inside the garage, which was now on fire.

“The floor was blown up, and there was a Jeep on its side,” Ackerly said. "The explosion picked it up."

“I couldn’t see him,” Misner said. “You could tell that the explosion happened from below, because the concrete floor was all buckled up."

Ackerly and Misner ran into the burning garage, which was filled with explosive materials, to rescue their neighbor.

“I didn’t even think it was a decision,” said Ackerly at the scene. “It’s my neighbor. I’ve known him my whole life."

“He was yelling, ‘Help, I’m burning up!’” Misner said.
But they couldn’t reach the man, or even see him. He was in the back, behind wreckage from the ceiling, which had caved in, shrouded in smoke.
“I couldn’t get to him,” Acklerly said, tears in his eyes. “I couldn’t get to him. I kept having to come out for air.”

At 12:21 p.m., Misner called 911, while Ackerly desperately searched for a way to haul the man out of the garage. Misner called 911 again.

Unable to reach their neighbor, they urged him to crawl towards them. He did, slowly. As he came into view, both men realized that he was badly burned. But he was conscious and he could see.

“I just kept my eyes on his eyes, telling him to keep going,” Ackerly said.
The man made it to them. Ackerly and Misner grabbed him and dragged him free of the garage. The man was taken from the scene and was later airlifted to a regional medical center by helicopter.

Witnesses heard multiple subsequent explosions in the garage, which burned completely to the ground as first responders from Margaretville and Arkville fought the blaze. One explosion sent metal shooting across the highway, several witness said. The heat was so intense that it melted the siding off the adjacent house. The house itself was saved.

The garage had once been a commercial garage owed by the Ackerly family, said Cody Ackerly, who remembered that it had burned once before, when he was young.

“I’m glad that I don’t remember that,” he said. “I don’t know if I could handle it twice.”

Several local volunteer fire departments responded to the scene. The fire appeared to be under control by 1 p.m. It is not yet clear what caused the explosion.
Source: www.watershedpost.com