No Injuries, Building Saved After Post Office Fire

WEST KILL - Reassuring words everyone was hoping to hear were spoken by Town of Lexington Fire Company fire chief Paul Dwon, last Saturday, after answering a fire call at the West Kill post office.

There were no injuries and, “the building was saved,” Dwon said, noting the letter center suffered minor smoke damage but otherwise no harm.

Dwon cited the cause of the fire as electrical, noting it started in a back section of the building used as a garage and for storage by the owner. 

That part of the building did receive smoke and water damage, Dwon said. The emergency was reportedly called in by the owner, Barry Craft, in the mid-afternoon, with volunteer firefighters back in service at 9 p.m.

Smoke was spotted billowing from the structure even as a light still shone inside the post office on Saturday, according to a resident.

Waking up the next morning, the office basically looked the same as the day before, with the American flag waving freely.

While neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night will stop the local mail delivery lady from her appointed rounds, the fire did close the small, rural post office on Tuesday, with Monday being a holiday.

Power, water and heat were shut off to the site, at 30 Spruceton Road, across the street (County Route 6) from the local Baptist Church and virtually a stone’s throw from a Lexington Fire Company substation.

A reopening date is unknown. Lexington building inspector Carl Giangrande met with the owner, Tuesday. It apparently could take some time before regular service is resumed.

“The post office was miraculously unscathed,” Giangrande said, noting it could be a relatively simple fix to isolate power to the furnace.

However, there could be other complications related to finding an available  licensed electrician and dealing with insurance, etc. Craft reportedly rents the front of the building to the Postal Service.

Pickup of the mail could be adventurous. Local residents who customarily stop at the West Kill site must instead travel to Shandaken.

The trip takes them through the Route 42 “Notch”, which, depending upon the season, is famous for its beauty or infamous for its driving challenges.

A shorter route would be to head east rather than west on Route 42 and into Lexington proper. West Kill is a hamlet within the town.

Postal Service officials explained that the West Kill and Lexington offices are situated in different zones, resulting in the Notch odyssey.

Mail comes to West Kill via Kingston and Shandaken while missives and packages addressed to Lexington come from the opposite direction.

The sojourn to Shandaken is not viewed as an inconvenience by one West Kill customer, fully trusting the Postal Service to do its upmost to get the work done, provided it does not take too long.

On the other hand, the social aspect of chatting with the postmaster and fellow Westkillians will be missed, whether for a year, a month or a day.

Mutual aid standby backup involved units from Prattsville, Jewett, Hensonville, Haines Falls and Hunter.