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MOUNT KISCO, N.Y. – An electrical fire that began in a closet is thought to be the cause of the blaze that ravaged a two-story home at 32 St. Mark’s Place in Mount Kisco Sunday morning.
According to the Mount Kisco Fire Department, there were 10 residents living in the building: two families with four adults and one child on each floor. No one was injured in the fire, which was called in at 10:54 a.m., fire officials said.
Assistant Fire Chief John Boddie, who said he lives 30 seconds away from the location, rushed to the scene when he got the call that morning.
Boddie said he rushed to the scene and ran inside the house without protective gear to check if anyone was inside. He said he had to get out when the downstairs hallway became too hot and smoky.
“The kids were my priority,” Boddie said.
Mount Kisco Fire Chief Tom Jackson said the fire started on the first floor but was able to rise quickly to the second because the house was built with a balloon frame, an older method of home construction. The house has hollow walls that do not provide the built-in fire stops that are in houses constructed nowadays.
At least 80 firefighters and emergency workers were at the scene, Jackson said. The Mount Kisco Fire Department was assisted by the Chappaqua, Bedford Hills and Ossining departments, and Millwood and Yorktown covered the village of Mount Kisco while the teams worked.
Firefighters stretched two fire hoses into the house to extinguish the blaze. “It took a good half hour to knock it down,” Jackson said of the flames.
After an investigation, the Westchester County Cause and Origin Team was able to determine that the fire began due to an electrical fire that started in a first-floor bedroom closet, Jackson said.
The two displaced families are primarily Spanish-speaking, so a translator from the Red Cross was called to the scene.
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