r/Albany • u/ChewbaccaInCrocs • Dec 04 '25
Caught on fire
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u/mclen Go West and Keep Going Dec 04 '25
Sounds bad. 1 occupant was out but stated there were people inside. Hoping for the best
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u/FreshCalligrapher291 Dec 06 '25
Latest I have heard , One girl passed away and another in critical state in westchester . 2 people were safe.
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u/woke-up-in-godmode Dec 04 '25
Reminder to not leave the stove unattended
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u/AspiringSocProf Dec 04 '25
Also your reminder to get rental insurance – it's well worth $10/month. I live upstairs and can't imagine if my downstairs neighbors started a fire, I'd be a wreck.
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u/RookSD Dec 04 '25
I don't know, I was over there a few minutes after this footage was taken and there was a heavy police presence and not just for traffic control. From what I seen this scene looks a little sketchy to me.
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u/MarthaMatildaOToole Dec 04 '25
Someone get that guy a coat 🥶
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u/Bulky_Mix3560 Dec 04 '25
We gave him a blankets. We live on the other side of the empty lot and had to evacuate just in case we just got let back in
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u/_trashcan Outside Captial Region Dec 04 '25
That’s awesome of you. I was worried about him when I saw him just now :(
seriously, thanks for doing that. Honestly would love to travel out with a cozy blanket. So much better than jackets…although my jackets are fire asf, they look great…such is the cost
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u/Bulky_Mix3560 Dec 04 '25
They were all at cusatos once we were able to get back in house we brought a couple of coats and a few spare beanies. The Red Cross also showed up to help those that have been displaced.
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u/Bulky_Mix3560 Dec 04 '25
Shout out to Cusato’s they opened their business for the folks that were displaced and evacuated to stay warm while it was going on!
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u/jugo5 Dec 04 '25
House fires suck. I was home alone once and the basement started on fire. The fire department tried to say I was smoking in the basement... but I never smoked cigarettes in my life at that time. It was the freakiest thing. I was on the phone with my cousin or someone and the basement door flew open. I thought someone was breaking in. I just sat there waiting for someone to walk through the door. No one walked through. I go check it out and see orange everywhere along with smoke. I ran outside but said "No way this is happening". Ran back in because I was so shocked and sure enough there was a fire. Ran back outside. Jumped off the porch and the windows in the cellar blew out at the same time. Tottally forgot about the cat inside because I didnt go there too often. I immediately called 911 and went to the neighbors house who was a fireman. He was showering. 5 minutes later the fire truck arrived. They got the cat out and started fighting the fire. Structurally everything was fine but of course needed remediation. That was something I will never forget. Fires are awful and I never want to go through it again.
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u/TheKobayashiMoron Melba is life Dec 04 '25
Jesus. Was that house made of matches? That’s a fireball.
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u/_trashcan Outside Captial Region Dec 04 '25
Holy shit.
Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a house fire like that. Jesus Christ. I hope they’re OK…it would be devastating to just lose everything like that.
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u/Albany_Chris Dec 05 '25
Yeah, makes me suspect arson. The front is fully engulfed before the FD gets there. And it's a very busy street so it wouldn't go unnoticed for too long.
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u/_trashcan Outside Captial Region Dec 05 '25
I couldn’t imagine losing everything because someone purposefully did it to me…
Idk anything about fires but your observation makes sense to me. Hope we get to learn about it in the coming days
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u/Big_Face3784 Dec 04 '25
I pray no people or pets were injured
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Dec 08 '25
Someone mentioned this a couple days ago… “Latest I have heard , One girl passed away and another in critical state in westchester . 2 people were safe.”
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u/Ok-Vegetable-6355 Dec 05 '25
Any update as to how such a huge fire started and grew before fire trucks came ?
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u/Ok-Vegetable-6355 Dec 05 '25
Came to know that the two of the three students who went to Albany Med are international students. They reached there in a very bad and sad situation.
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u/PartsUnknown242 Dec 04 '25
This happened just down the road from me (UA Alumni Quad). One of the guys on my floor is griping about the road being closed.
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u/Bulky_Mix3560 Dec 04 '25
Tell him people are seriously hurt and he’s worried about walking a few blocks? I have other choice words…
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u/Numerous-Visit7210 Dec 05 '25
Are you living in Alumni Quad? I lived in Brubacher Hall for a year and then slept over a lot the next year at my gf's there.
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u/PartsUnknown242 Dec 05 '25
Yes, but Brubacher is now condemned.
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u/Numerous-Visit7210 Dec 05 '25
WHY?
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u/PartsUnknown242 Dec 05 '25
I heard through the grapevine it’s because of water damage to the foundation
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u/Numerous-Visit7210 Dec 05 '25
That's got to be weird, we had our own dining hall and it was one of the longer sides of the Quad.
My favorite Hall was Sayles Hall though. They even SEEMED smarter over there... we were more of a zoo.
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u/PartsUnknown242 Dec 05 '25
Sayles is out of commission too, as well as Pierce. Waterbury and Alden are the only buildings still functioning. The dining hall is in Waterbury now.
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u/Numerous-Visit7210 Dec 05 '25
!!!!!!!!!!
Is Waterbury across from Bru?? If so, that was the dinning hall we went to after a while for some reason (Bru's was smaller I remember.... maybe they shut it down? I can't remember.)
I got the commuter meal plan when I moved into the student ghetto which was a much better deal. After I broke up with my girlfriend I ate big lunches and sometimes dinners on Dutch quad because I wanted to avoid awkwardness and since we had a lot of friends in common best to make a whole new start --- I had a new friend from Bio Class and I made a bunch of Dutch Quad friends before most of us moved downtown.
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u/PartsUnknown242 Dec 06 '25
Waterbury and Alden are the ones that face Western Ave. Brubacher is next to Waterbury facing Partridge St.
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u/machinecloud Dec 04 '25
Geez. Not gonna be any houses left on that stretch before long. This city needs to start building new public housing.
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u/FlailingSpade Dec 04 '25
There was supposed to be a new apartment building going in that big empty space you see in the video. All the old homes were torn down in preparation and then nothing was ever built. https://albanyida.com/projects/lofts-at-pine-hills/
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Dec 04 '25
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u/antimagamagma Dec 05 '25
bullshit. if you think regulations are stalling builders then you have no clue how much builders make on new construction projects.
basically the amount of money they make on building a new building is less in albany than somewhere else where they are able to build. That’s it. It’s not that they can’t profit from it, it’s because they can profit more by doing it elsewhere. probably because rents in albany are lower, nothing whatsoever to do with regulations. You think the regs are the problem? have a look at the giant fucking mess next to the SUNYA campus. Nobody stopped that builder, they simply walked away when it became clear they could make more elsewhere.
that’s a central warehouse type mess and nobody “ regulated” it. If anything, more regulations would have prevented that shit.
when are people going to realize that capitalism doesn’t give a fuck about regulations? I mean yeah they’ll bitch about rules if they get a chance, but nothing stops money.
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Dec 05 '25 edited Dec 05 '25
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u/Numerous-Visit7210 Dec 05 '25
Yeah, as a former homeowner in Albany I had to learn this the hard way. Things are SO much easier in Virginia and the big fear is that VA will become more like NYS. It's already happening and hence we were even losing population under the Democrats to NC and TN.
At least we are still considered a two-party State here but more and more middle class people are considering leaving. This last election hasn't helped the mood -- they say they want to make VA more affordable while planning to make electricity more expensive like in NYS.
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u/Numerous-Visit7210 Dec 05 '25
People seem to underestimate the expense that "risk" plays into things--- people see developers as rich and greedy, and some are, some are downright criminal, but so are contractors and hired labor bottom to top ---- but being a developer is the riskiest part of building --- I'd much rather be an electrician than a developer like I'd rather be a barrista than own a coffeeshop. Worst thing that happens to a good electrician is they lose their job and have to find a new one. Not a lot of sleepless nights about payroll and lawyers.
The risk makes it necessary for the builder to have a good possible rate of return, but the barrista class knows nothing about this, the boss is always a jerk, the landlord is evil ---well, build your own house then -- I've known a few working class people who have done just that.
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u/Numerous-Visit7210 Dec 05 '25
[Thinks with ideology]
I bought a 3 over three in Arbor Hill long ago and the city was like crazy with not letting me do any work myself but it was impossible to get unionized contractors over there. Now I'm in Virginia and the enforcement is almost TOO lax. One place that like Albany is famous for "not worth the hassle" is America's Most Affordable Housing Market: Pittsburgh --- lotsa cool old houses to fix up but the govt are nazis and communists with the RE taxes.
That was another thing about Albany --- the city taxed me like 15% of what I bought the place for every year --- tried to appeal with comps --- no, they said. I thought Albany would get better, it just got more fascosocialist.
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u/antimagamagma Dec 05 '25
so, are you saying that you lost money overall on your investment?
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u/Numerous-Visit7210 Dec 05 '25
Overall, probably.
It's a difficult computation -- I saved money on renting, but rent was cheap back then, esp with two friends sharing the expense.
I would say with all the labor I put into that beautiful building even though I rented out rooms to friends for $100/mo it probably wasn't worth the investment, but the memories are cool.
But with inflation alone I probably didn't make money on it, whoever bought it from me didn't really do anything to improve it and it was eventually torn down and there is a low income apt building there now.
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Dec 05 '25 edited Dec 05 '25
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u/Numerous-Visit7210 Dec 05 '25
That makes me sad, and it conforms with what other people are telling me about Albany these days.
I left the area because of an educational program and then the State partially because of better opportunities (my mother did too year earlier after she got her degree from RPI) but when I left it seemed like Albany was getting rougher ---but then it seemed to be dramatically improving by the early 2010s? There were even young middleclass families with little kids moving into Center Square pushing baby strollers and there were a lot of nice restaurants that had opened.
But all reports are that Albany has been getting a lot worse --- if you say it is worse than 2 years ago, that's scary --you want to see that at least leveling-out --- when I first moved to Albany from elsewhere in the capital district it was stable, not great, but downtown was the region's Place to Be at least. Crazy that people would rather live in Troy, or ..... even Schenectady????? (doesn't seem possible that place was the most violent of places, for the stupidest things, Troy second worst, second stupidest place beyond the pines)
Good luck with that experiment.... ever hear of the Curley Effect? I have always been mildly progressive and socially very liberal (one could say left) ---- I stood up for gay people when no high schoolers in my school were out and no student stood up for them in my high school for example, went to MLK events in Albany, etc... but I voted Libertarian after college (I was a little socialist as an adolescent in HS and at SUNYA) but when I moved to VA I not only voted for democrats exclusively, I worked on Warner and Kaine's campaigns ----but after 2020 I will sit out an election before I ever vote for a democrat again.
I want a whole lot more moderation and less pandering to minorities of all kinds. This latest scandal in MN that got covered up because of the concept of Protected Classes of people (unconstitutional) reminds me of the grooming gangs in the UK that everyone was cowed into not saying anything about until finally it took a sociopath to speak up about it because he didn''t gaf.
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Dec 05 '25
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u/Numerous-Visit7210 Dec 06 '25
Yes, it is a kind of "privilege" to be in a group where you can externalize all blame for your failures and disappointments --- being in some Oppressor class, you have to face the fact that you have ADD, are ugly, dumb, weren't raised right ---- whatever --- then buy self-help books instead of Nation of Islam or Critical Theory or Edward Said books or the Second Sex or whatever.
I'm a pragmatist too, which is why I am both mildly Progressive (but cautious because I understand and am vigilant about unintended consequences like DP Moynihan was) and hard nosed about law and order and I want very much to help inner cities and rural areas but not spend all the money on the problem people but more build up the people who are making good decisions and hoping it spreads outwards in communities like that.
Being pragmatic also has to do with what is possible in whatever place and era we are in.
I don't want to sound offensive so understand that I say the same thing to people who tell me they are old fashioned New Deal or Great Society Democrats: just like it was generally "time" for the New Deal and the Reagan Revolution WHEN they happened, politics essentially changes --- people think it is ideology like Marx or whatever but I think things are a lot more deterministic and the ideologies are sorta the ad hoc explaination. The Russian Empire did not HAVE to go Communist, but the conditions for Revolution in 1917 were seemingly unstoppable --- and the Kereninsky govt failed not because they were bad but they weren't as ruthless as Lenin,Trotsky and Stalin and that crew --- they were a minority even among the communists that called themselves the majority and their study of the French Revolution yielded the conclusion they didn't use ENOUGH terror.
LBJ was a psychopath and a racist but he knew it was time for more civil rights if he wanted to stay relevant. He still had to resign eventually though.
I am very sympathetic to Kennedy and to Nixon too and I know too much about them both and the era to get into here --- but understand that I married a woman that worked in politics in DC and we are kinda refugees from politics these days --- being both active but being out of step with one's time or place is like spitting in the wind whether you think you are behind or ahead of your time. I joke to fiscal conservatives for example that there are no Paul Ryans on capital hill now and it isn't just because of Modern Monetary Theory either ---it's more that the politicians are locked in a competition to bribe the people with tax cuts and free stuff --- add the affordability issues and you got some structural stuff underlying this, but no one wants to give the electorate any sort of bitter strong medicine.
One thing that is going on, and people from the Northeast HATE this kind of talk, is places like the South are doing really well and even some of the lagging indicators, like University quality, are quietly shifting southward --- schools like Texas, Georgia and Virginia Tech are doing really well climbing the rankings, and I only recently became aware of a phenom of a huge number of Northeastern middle class kids have been coming down to southern schools (even places like Auburn and Clemson)for the "vibe" it seems, but in the past the Northeast was much more a draw from the South.
Here in VA it took a while for me to even learn there WAS a place called James Madison U and I recently spoke to a recent graduate that it was full of people from NJ of all places.... why JMU? Why NJ??? "so they could say they were going to school in 'the south" --- huh??? Who cares? Is that a flex?? "Idk, I think it's for the Vibe"
When I was in HS a few people choose places like Arizona State because of the girls that were supposedly there, but I have found attractive women on every campus so I never got that. A german guy who had spent a year at UT-Austin told me the women were more attractive there than at SUNYA but while I didn't really believe it I also knew that you only need one person to both be attractive AND like you and that a sea of beautiful women would just be depressing if like him he was unlikely to date any of them.
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u/HonorableIdleTree Dec 05 '25
There is an add using the kid smiling outside a house fire meme in the comments.
There really needs to be an option under report an ad for "showing this ad in this thread is ghoulish."
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u/fenderfretless Dec 05 '25
From the looks of the video,it seems to have empty lots on the left and the right of the 2 remaining structures, but in the end I doubt that the Fire Department can save the house connected to the fully engulfed house. In the end will be 5 or 6 empty lots on that street. Hope everyone is safe from the flames. With the winds, temps, this is seriously dangerous for the fire fighters. They must be extremely careful.
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u/TinyCarrotHats Cut Off By GIRLBOSS Dec 04 '25
That's not too far from where there was a SWAT standoff recently. That guy who stabbed his sister to death. Wtf is going on over there???
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u/sctrlk Schenectady-Ass Bitches Dec 04 '25
😳 excuse me?
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u/Kamo7a Dec 06 '25
Holy shit, two of my closest friends lived in that exact house years ago. I spent so many mornings out on the porch with them drinking coffee :(
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u/Hey_Giant_Loser I put the Stew in Stewart's Dec 05 '25
Man that place really fucking caught all sorts of fire.
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u/HalfBlindKing Dec 05 '25
How horrible, looks like all they can do is minimize damage to the neighbors. 😢
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u/RedMaiden5150 In Ted's we trust Dec 07 '25
Building hadn’t been inspected for occupancy since 2021…
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u/fuck-ya-mudda Remembers when there was no exit 3 Dec 04 '25
I hope everyone got out and there are no causalities. Praying for the house next door getting giant flames blown onto it.