Knowlesville, New York: Man Dies in Presbyterian Street House Fire as Neighbor Is Burned Trying a Rescue

An elderly man died Thursday night in a house fire on Presbyterian Street in Knowlesville, a hamlet in the Town of Ridgeway in Orleans County. A neighbor who ran into the burning house to try to rescue him came back out with his own clothes on fire and was flown to a Rochester hospital with serious burns.

The Orleans County Sheriff's 911 center received multiple reports of a working house fire with two people trapped at 12625 Presbyterian Street at 8:28 p.m. on Thursday, October 22, Sheriff Chris Bourke said in a release issued Friday. Ridgeway firefighters arrived to find flames shooting from the windows and the porch, according to the Orleans Hub, which reported from the scene Thursday night.

A neighbor ran in

The man who died lived in the house and was confined to a wheelchair. Neighbors knew him from his motorized wheelchair along the road, the Orleans Hub reported. When the fire broke out, a neighbor from across the street, a man in his 60s, went into the house to try to reach him.

Heavy fire and smoke forced the neighbor back out. He exited the house on fire himself, rolled on the ground in the front yard and got help from others there to put the flames out, the sheriff's release said. He was taken by ambulance to a Mercy Flight helicopter landing zone at the county fairgrounds and flown to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester with serious burns.

A second resident of the house, the son of the man who died, was also injured and was taken by ambulance to Strong Memorial Hospital. Firefighters found the older man dead on the first floor of the residence. The Orleans County Coroner's Office responded to the scene.

The family's husky got out of the house safely and was picked up by an Orleans County animal control officer, the Orleans Hub reported.

A countywide response

The Ridgeway Volunteer Fire Company answered the call with automatic mutual aid from the Medina Fire Department and its ambulance, the Albion Fire Department, the East Shelby and Shelby fire companies, Orleans County Emergency Management and sheriff's deputies. More help came from Lyndonville, Barre, Carlton and Murray, with Batavia and Middleport filling in at other stations and Mercy Flight and Mercy Ambulance handling medical transport.

Crews drew water from the Erie Canal to keep a steady supply at the scene. A Shelby ladder truck sprayed water on the house while a Shelby pumper pulled canal water through about 1,400 feet of five inch hose, the Orleans Hub reported.

Names withheld, cause unknown

The sheriff's office has not released the names of the man who died or of the two men taken to the hospital. The cause and origin of the fire are under investigation by Orleans County and state fire investigators, Bourke said. Further details will be released when appropriate, the sheriff's office said.