June 6, 2022
Newburgh residents want to know if fire staffing cuts earlier this year resulted in a death of a 69-year-old woman in an apartment fire Wednesday night. The fire began Wednesday at 11 p.m. at 68 Lander St. and spread to the rowhouses on either side. Debra Benedict lived with her adult son, Jason, in the apartment. He leaped from the flames and remains hospitalized with injuries. She was unable to escape the fire as the stairway in the building had burned away.
The city government cut the department from 10 to seven firefighters earlier in 2022. Now citizens want to know if the outcome could have been different without the reductions in staffing.