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In Rockland County, a stretch of Route 9W in Clarkstown will be closed until at least Sunday afternoon, April 16 "due to trees still falling and some rocks," the Clarkstown Police Department said late Saturday morning, April 15.
It is closed at the Route 304 interchange in Congers and on the Haverstraw side at Route 9W by the rock cut.
Just after 2 p.m. on Friday, April 14, responders rushed to Old Haverstraw Road in Congers for reports of a large brush fire encroaching on neighboring homes.
A supervisor with the Clarkstown Police Department, while on patrol, observed a large black plume of smoke coming from the Congers area.
As he traveled further south on Old Haverstraw Road, he observed the celery fields in the rear of the homes and adjacent to the railroad tracks to be fully engulfed in flames, further reporting the fire encroaching on a detached garage, Clarkstown Police Department added.
Clarkstown PD dispatchers alerted all officers of the large-scale incident and directed the units to respond.
Arriving officers described seeing numerous residents in the street fleeing their homes that were adjacent to the brush fire.
Officers assisted residents in voluntary evacuations of their residences while going door to door to confirm anyone wishing to be evacuated had the ability to do so.
This took place along Old Haverstraw Road and in the Lief Boulevard neighborhood of the Hidden Valley Condominium complex.
“Our emergency personnel, Police, Fire, and EMS, all operated as one during this incident," Clarkstown PD Chief Jeffrey Wanamaker said. "This along with the cooperation from the community led to an outcome of limited property damage and no major injuries, which would not have been the case, if not for this synergy."
A total of 26 volunteer fire departments operated at all the brush fires Friday, including three departments from Orange County, five from Bergen, and six from Westchester.
A Westchester Police Department helicopter provided water drops on the fire on the mountain in Haverstraw.
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