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| The burned-out building is shown on April 22, 2018. Tania Barricklo — Daily Freeman file |
By Diane Pineiro-Zucker, Daily Freeman
August 23, 2018
SAUGERTIES, N.Y. >>
The cause of an April 21 apartment house fire on Russell Street in the village that killed one person and critically injured three others remains undetermined, a state official said Wednesday.
Kristin Devoe, of the New York Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, which investigates all fatal fires in the state, said the probe by her office concluded the fire started in the living room but, “due to the damage” resulting from the fire, the cause remains undetermined. She said the investigation could be reopened if additional information is received.
The state finding concurred with an earlier determination by Saugerties officials that the fire started in the living room of Apartment 1 at 18-20 Russell St. about 2:20 a.m. April 21.
Tanya Conklin, 46, who lived in Apartment 2 in the three-unit building, died in the fire. Three other people, including a child and teenager, were critically injured.
Saugerties Police Chief Joseph Sinagra said Wednesday that the fire is not considered suspicious.
Devoe said it appears there was no smoke detector or carbon monoxide detector in the apartment where the fire originated. She said investigators were unable to definitively determine whether there were detectors in Conklin’s apartment.
“Investigators couldn’t get in safely to examine every inch, and from the debris, we did not find a smoke detector or carbon monoxide detector [in Conklin’s apartment],” she said. “... But we cannot definitively say there wasn’t one.”
Police have said Conklin was found dead in the rear bedroom of Apartment 2, where she lived with Brittany Conklin, 21, Malikye Stokes, 21, Samantha Widener, 17, and Desiree Widener, 9.
In April, village Building Inspector Eyal Saad emailed the Freeman a copy of a March 19, 2015, certificate of occupancy for the Russell Street building and said village policy requires an inspection of buildings without common areas that receive such certificates “once every five years or so.”
On Thursday, Saad said he had not seen the state fire inspection report. “All I can tell you is that when I did an inspection in the past, there were smoke detectors [and carbon monoxide detectors] in the apartments,” he said.
The Saugerties building code requires inspection “of all multiple dwellings ... at least once every 36 months.”
Asked about the code, Saad said certificates of occupancy do not expire, but he did not respond to an email asking if inspections are subsequently performed every three years.
Devoe said working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors can provide early fire detection and save lives.
Saad said a meeting with the village’s insurance attorney is planned Friday to discuss how to proceed.
The building, which remains standing but is not occupied, is owned by Giuseppe Sireci of Brooklyn and managed by his son, Joseph, who lives in Saugerties.
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Tanya Lynn Conklin
SAUGERTIES, NY-
Tanya Lynn Conklin, 46, died tragically on Saturday, April 21, 2018, at her residence. She was born in Kingston on Jan. 28, 1972; to Joseph Finger and the late Ida Bush Finger. She attended Saugerties High School and then devoted her life to her six girls that were her world: Heather, Danielle, Brittany, Nicole, Samantha, and Desiree.
She loved dolphins and watching for them on trips to the Carolinas. She is also survived by her husband, Randy Widener; paternal grandmother, Shirley Finger; five siblings, John, Danny, Angela, Melissa, and Shirley; five grandchildren, and many nieces, nephews, cousins, aunts, and uncles. She loved taking walks and spending time with friends and family, she was the sweetest person, and always had a smile on her face. She would do anything for anyone.
