June 19, 2022
Firefighters in Newburgh charge that staffing cuts hindered their response to a fire Wednesday that killed a woman and injured her son. The mayor, meanwhile, took to Facebook to argue the point.
Debra Benedict, 64. died trying to escape from a third story window as flames and smoke engulfed her during the Wednesday night fire. Her son Justin managed to jump from a window and suffered burns and broken bones.
Newburgh firefighters say their first responding vehicle, a ladder truck, arrived at the fire scene within a minute of receiving the call, but could not fight the fire as it was too advanced to allow them in the building. Instead, they had to wait for their second apparatus, an engine, to arrive before they could get water on the fire and get close enough to the building to get ladders up.
More firefighters arriving sooner would have sped up that process, the firefighters told News 12. The mayor, meanwhile, blamed a delay in reporting the fire and overhead power lines at the scene for the fatality in a posting on Facebook.
The city cut back staffing in the department earlier this year to save money.