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