A ferocious fire ripped through an off-campus home near Marist College early yesterday, killing two female students and a male guest who were unable to escape the inferno, witnesses said.
“They were all good kids,” distraught neighbor Joe Croshier, 56, said of the six co-eds who rented the wooden, green home a block from the school on Fairview Avenue in Poughkeepsie.
“It wasn’t a party house or anything. They never caused any trouble. It’s just a tragedy.”
The three victims were not immediately identified
Officials said there were seven people sleeping in the home after a small get-together when the blaze first broke out at about 1:30 a.m.
One couple was sleeping in a second-floor bedroom, another was on the first floor, and two other women and one man were in other rooms.
Two roommates had gone out for the night.
“It looks like the fire started in the back rear section of the first floor,” said Chris Maeder, chief of the Fairview fire company.
The couples were lucky enough to escape the inferno and get out to the frigid street, police said.
A woman and her boyfriend felt a steaming hot doorknob and ran to the window.
The panicked boyfriend hurled the young woman out of the window as witnesses watched in horror from the street.
“All she kept saying is her best friend is inside,” neighbor Ashley Fauteux told the Poughkeepsie Journal. The boyfriend then jumped out the window behind her.
The other couple exited through the front door, police said.
“The students came out of the house with no shoes, barely any clothes on,” said Police Chief Tom Mauro. “You can imagine what a traumatic experience it’s been for them.”
When firefighters arrived, the home was engulfed in flames to the point where smoke-eaters couldn’t attempt a rescue.
It took them 90 minutes to put out the blaze, and by then it was too late.
“We found one victim upstairs, one victim downstairs, and the third victim was found under considerable collapsed debris,” said Mauro.
After the bodies of the tragic were removed, the home was bulldozed.
“This has been a difficult fire, and the loss of life is significant,” Mauro said. “Since I’ve been chief, this has been the worst incident in my experience.”
Neighbors said that when the fire broke out, it shattered windows, and at one point sounded like “a bomb,” neighbors said.
Some neighbors said they heard the shattering glass first.
“We thought it was a house being broken into,” said Marist senior Melissa Generoso, 21, who quickly looked out the window with her roommates.
“I saw a huge orange cloud of smoke,” the shaken student said. “It was a big orange ball of fire.” They ran out onto Fairview Avenue, where other worried residents were gathering.
“We saw a boy carrying a girl down the street,” she said.
Generoso said the fire quickly swallowed the whole house.
“There were embers flying everywhere,” the shaken student said.
John Gileard, the director of safety and security at Marist, said, “We mourn the loss of any life in the community, and our thoughts and prayers go out to members of the family.”
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