Firefighters find decomposed body inside suspicious Spring Valley house fire this AM.

SPRING VALLEY – Firefighters battling a suspicious fire in a vacant house found a man's decomposing body untouched by flames in a first-floor room early Wednesday, authorities said.

How long the body had been inside 59 Twin Ave. remains under investigation.
"There was a skull on the floor sticking out of a blanket," Spring Valley Fire Inspector Frank Youngman said. "We first thought it was like a Halloween prank."
After pulling back the blanket, firefighters found more skeletal remains, Youngman said. The firefighters then left the house as the police and fire investigators took over.

An anthropologist will be called in to try to identify the man, Spring Valley police said.
Authorities said they found evidence that squatters were living in the house.
The fire apparently started in the rear of the house before being reported at 1:17 a.m., Youngman said. Flames were shooting out of the house when an estimated 30 volunteers from Spring Valley and Hillcrest fire departments arrived, he said. The body was found in the front of the house.

Youngman said the house had been boarded up for at least five years, possibly 10. The house is at the corner of Franka Place, not far from Ramapo Commons, a 132-condominium townhouse development on Elm Street.

Samuel Muller of Monsey is listed as the owner, Youngman said. He said the police and village inspectors had not found a telephone number for Muller.
The fire is considered suspicious since the power had been turned off and the building had been boarded up, Spring Valley Fire Chief Ken Sohlman said.

Youngman said he could not say at this point how the fire started accidentally with the electricity turned off. Detective Douglas Lerner of the Rockland Sheriff's Office Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Spring Valley police detectives were investigating the fire and body.

Source: LoHud

Photos by: YP/WhatsApp/First Responders

New City fatal explosion, fire: neighbor's house shook

NEW CITY – A 67-year-old man died and his wife is hospitalized after an explosion and fire ripped through their home late Monday.

Fire officials said the man's body was found in the attached garage at 51 Hansen Ave. He had reportedly gone to the garage after smelling gasoline.

His wife, 65, suffered serious burns to the face and arms. She was taken to the burn center at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan. Police are withholding their names pending family notification.

New City Fire Chief Jim Avaras said firefighters arrived to find the structure fully involved in flames. The fire was reported about 11:30 p.m. and firefighters were on the scene within five minutes, he said.
"As soon as we got here, we had guys in the entire building under heavy fire conditions looking for this guy," Avaras said. "But it ended up that he was in the garage."
The chief said flames were shooting 20 feet into the air from some windows. The blaze was under control in about 20 minutes, he said.
The victims' names have not been released. Neighbors said they're a couple in their 60s, with a daughter and grandchildren.
Tom Ahern, who lives next door on the cul-de-sac, said a loud boom shook his house around 11:30. He thought it might have been a garbage truck, but then he heard crackling sounds. When he got outside, he saw flames in the garage door windows.
He ran back to the house, called 911, then ran back to No. 51.
"The door was unlocked so I yelled in: "Fire, get out! Fire, get out!"
The house was getting smoky. In the garage, "I could see orange flames billowing inside."
Then he heard the wife around back. She was holding her hands up in front of her. They had been burned. She said her husband was still inside.
By then, smoke could be seen in the house, and the flames were spreading beyond the garage. They eventually burned through the second floor and the roof.
Ahern said the couple always parked in the driveway, not the garage. But they had a gas-powered generator and the usual lawn care equipment, including a mower.
No firefighters were injured. The cause of the blaze is under investigation. Orange and Rockland Utilities ruled out natural gas as the cause, Avaras said.

Source: Lohud

Photo courtesy: Zishey/First Responders.

VIDEO: New City Structure Fire