Fire breaks out at decaying Camp LaGuardia

By Ginny Privitar
CHESTER — A suspicious fire destroyed an outbuilding at the former Camp LaGuardia homeless shelter, the latest mark of decline in the county-owned facility's slow deterioration.

Fire struck between 3 and 4 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 26. The fire went to two alarms because the building is difficult to reach, and because the frigid temperature complicated the firefighters' efforts.

The fire was confined to the outbuilding. There were no injuries.

Chester’s new fire chief, Robert Favara, praised his volunteer firefighters.

“It was pretty cold," he said. "I’ve seen worse days, but it wasn‘t a beautiful day.”

The fire was extinguished in three hours. It has been deemed suspicious and is under investigation.

Fire companies responded from Chester, Goshen, Monroe, Florida, Blooming Grove, Salisbury Mills, Washingtonville, and Campbell Hall. Warwick and Greenwood Lake were on standby,

Orange County Fire Services Deputy Commissioner Vini Tankasali was on scene along with two other deputy fire coordinators. The county Department of Public Works salted the area made slick by pumped water freezing in the cold air.

Since shelter closing, a steady slide

The multi-building, 258-acre campus has been closed since 2007, when Orange County purchased it from New York City. Since then, it has not been maintained or secured.

Daniel Doellinger is the Town of Chester Police chief and 2nd lieutenant of Trout Brook Engine & Hose. He said a lot of damage has been done to the property since the homeless shelter closed. Thieves have taken off with copper piping, which in recent years has surged in value. And vandals hold sway.

“I don’t know if there is an intact window in the place,” he said.

Doellinger said the county leaves the gate to the property open to give access to a small Heritage Trail parking area. And the fence enclosing the campus has holes.

Orysia Dmytrenko, spokesperson for Orange County Executive Ed Diana, said the Sheriff’s Office regularly patrols the property.

The homeless shelter was for decades wildly unpopular in the Town of Chester, which in 2007 applauded the county for buying it and shutting it down. But the purchase brought a new set of challenges. The county has been eager to recoup the $8.5 million it paid for the property, and has even found a buyer, Mountco Development Corp. of Scarsdale.

But closing the deal has proven elusive. The town objects to the number of houses Mountco wants to build there, which at one point topped 900 but has come down a bit in more recent plans. And there isn't enough sewer capacity at the Harriman sewage treatment plant, which serves Chester, to accommodate a major new housing complex, along with the large commercial strip also included in Mountco's plans. Mountco says dense development is needed to justify the purchase price.