THOMPSON, N.Y. — Authorities say a five-alarm fire has caused major damage at an upstate yeshiva owned by a Rockland County Hasidic Jewish sect.
More than 350 students attend the school but were not there at the time of the fire, Kaser Deputy Mayor Sholom Koenig said.
No one was hurt and there were no boys there, thankfully,” Koenig said. “They would have been running for their belongings. So many of the boys lost everything.”
The studaents were in Kaser paying respects to Viznitz grand rebbe Mordachai Hager, whose brother Moshe Hager died at 95 ina Jerusalem, Israel, Koenig said.
The fire was reported at about 7 p.m. The cause is under investigation.
Koenig said investigators believe the fire was started accidentally. He said work was being done on the school, which was built in the 1950s as a hotel. He said the wood-framed structure caught fire and spread quickly.
Firefighters spent several hours battling the blaze Thursday in the three-story building in the Sullivan County town of Thompson, more than an hour from Rockland and 80 miles northwest of New York City.
Assistant Monticello Fire Chief Marc Friedland told the local newspaper the fire spread quickly through dorm rooms and there was damage throughout the building.
Friedland said the only person in the building was a staff member who got out safely.
The religious school is in a former hotel now owned by the Yeshivath Viznitz D'Khal and Torah Chaim Inc., both with registered P.O. box numbers out of Monsey.
The Times Middletown-Record previously reported that the year-round Viznitz community in Sullivan has 37 box-framed homes, most built around 2000.
The community plans to rebuild the school. “The boys love the school,” Koenig said.
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