N.Y. Police Kick in Burning Apartment's Door to Save Residents

CLAY, NY— A state trooper kicked in the door to an apartment building in Clay and a half-dozen officers rushed inside to alert residents of a fire Monday afternoon.

State police and Onondaga County sheriff’s deputies found residents still inside the smoke-filled apartment building at 4320 Arlington Circle.

Teagan Dow, 20, who lives in a first-floor apartment on the opposite end of the same building where the fire was said she could smell something burning, but thought it was someone cooking.

“I didn’t realize anything was going on until (a police officer) knocked on my door and said, ‘Everybody out,’” Dow said.

After she got outside, Dow said she then realized another apartment in her building was on fire.

A Grubhub driver delivering food at the nearby Super 8 Motel on Oswego Road ( Route 57) happened to look over a fence at 4 p.m. and saw dark smoke and glass breaking from a window at Breckenridge Apartments, Trooper John Moretti III said. The driver immediately called 911 to report the fire, the trooper said.

When police arrived at the apartment complex, they could see flames and heavy black smoke from the second and third floors, Moretti said.

The door to the apartment complex was locked, so Moretti said he kicked in the door. Six troopers and deputies rushed inside. They could hear people coughing. They knocked on doors and opened doors, and told those still inside to get out, Trooper Ben Zaccagnino said.

Everyone was able to get out safely, he said.

As Zaccagnino walked back outside, he spotted a singed bunny at the doorway. He said he picked the bunny out of the soot and snow, and carried it away from the fire.

Dow said the trooper asked her if the bunny was her pet, but it was not.

A short time later, Brandon Harrison, 27, arrived home from work to find his apartment on fire and his 3-year-old Holland lop bunny named Odafin, or Finny for short, burned but safely out of the burning building. Harrison said his landlord called him to tell him about the fire so he rushed home.

“I was worried about my bunny,” Harrison said, cradling his pet outside in the cold while firefighters battled the fire. “I don’t care about anything else; not my shoes or clothes or anything except my bunny.”

Harrison later said he had called a veterinarian, who told him as long as the bunny was breathing he could wait to have Odafin seen on Tuesday. Harrison said his bunny was breathing, but he was worried so he planned to make calls to other vets.

Both the officers who rushed inside the building and the firefighters who battled the fire said they were glad everyone was able to get out safely.

Volunteer firefighters from Moyers Corners, North West, Lakeside and Liverpool responded to the scene. Belgium Cold Springs, Clay and North Syracuse volunteer firefighters were on standby. Northern Onondaga Volunteer Ambulance (NOVA), National Grid, Onondaga County fire investigators and the Red Cross also were called to the scene.

Firefighters extinguished the fire in about 20 minutes and cut a hole in the roof to help ventilate the building, Moyers Corners Battalion Fire Chief Scott Beverly said. The fire walls inside the apartment building worked like they were supposed to, which helped minimize the damage, he said.

Harrison and the tenant who lives below him could not return to their apartments Monday night because of the damage from the fire, Beverly said. The Red Cross will help those displaced by the fire, he said.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation Monday night, Beverly said.

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