WEST CHAZY — Firefighters saved a West Chazy home from major property damage extinguishing a basement blaze Sunday night.

Clinton County Emergency Services called the West Chazy Fire Department to a fire at a home owned by Alexandra Farbotko, which sits across the road from 7493 Route 22 at 8:30 p.m. The two-story house is just south of the hamlet of West Chazy in the Town of Chazy, just north of the Ketcham Bridge Road intersection.

Farbotko's son, Stanley Farbotko, said his 93-year-old mother was staying with her daughter, Anna Sherman, of Plattsburgh.

"The house was kind of closed off. There were appliances running in the cellar," Mr. Farbotko said.

West Chazy Fire Chief David Lucia said he arrived to see flames coming out of a basement window. He and another firefighter used two fire extinguishers to knock the flames down.

"It appears the fire had been burning for some time. The damage was contained to the basement and a bedroom on the first floor," Lucia said. "The damage to personal property was minimal."

There was smoke damage to the rest of the house. West Chazy received mutual aid assistance from the Beekmantown, Chazy and District 3 fire departments. The Mooers Fire Department had its air truck at the fire.

Standby support was provided by the Altona and Mooers fire departments in West Chazy and the Cumberland Head Fire Department in Beekmantown.

Lucia said his crew was waiting for investigators to finish before they would go in to move some appliances and take down some panelling to make sure all the embers were extinguished.

The fire was reported by a neighbor across the street and by a passerby who used a cell phone.



E-mail Dan Heath at: dheath@pressrepublican.com