Watervliet Building Badly Damaged After Late-Night FireUpdated 05/24/2016 07:10 PM
Watervliet Home Demolished After Damaged by FireUpdated 05/06/2016 05:31 PM
By Jorja Roman
Updated Sunday, June 26, 2016 at 05:40 PM EDT
WATERVLIET, N.Y. -- Doug Schoonmaker, a longtime Watervliet resident, turned around to a sight never seen before in his backyard on Saturday night.
“I was in the middle of cleaning my pool and my wife was sitting at the table and I didn't hear a thing. And my wife just said, ‘Doug I think we have to get out of here,’” Schoonmaker said. “The smoke was just horrendous. It was just big puffs of black smoke.”
The warehouse that's always been behind his Watervliet home was engulfed in flames
“You could feel the heat. It was unbearable. The heat was just amazing,” said Schoonmaker.
That heat caused minor damage to some vinyl siding on Schoonmaker's home and he lost power through Sunday afternoon.
“It could have been a lot worse than it is,” Schoonmaker said.
He says the potential that flames would reach his home was his biggest fear.
“I thought it was going to actually. I come back here and my fence over in the corner was starting to catch fire,” said Schoonmaker.
However, thanks to the work of six fire departments and 40 firefighters, the fire was contained to the warehouse.
“When you have a fire of this magnitude you have to see where it's going. You have to try and get ahead of it and prevent it from extending to other structures and running down the block,” Watervliet fire chief Ron Conlen said.
The massive fire may have destroyed an entire warehouse and damaged nearby homes but it's nothing the Watervliet community can't overcome.
"A bunch of us neighbors helped with pulling hoses and keeping the traffic lines up and putting the tape out for the fireman and policeman because they had their hands full. It was just a crazy night, but it was nice the community came together,” Watervliet resident Bill Fisher said.