Red Cross provides aid to 2 people after fire damages home

NICHOLVILLE, New York (WWNY) - The American Red Cross is helping two people after a fire damaged their St. Lawrence County home.

The blaze broke out at around 7 p.m. Sunday at a duplex at 81 County Route 49 in Nicholville.

Steve Parker, chief of the Hopkinton-Fort Jackson Fire Department, lives across the street from the building.

He said a woman who lives in one of the apartments there ran to his home to say her place was filling with smoke.

When Parker and other firefighters arrived, they found the smoke was coming from the other apartment in the duplex.

Parker said once they got inside, they found the kitchen was on fire.

With the help of Nicholville and Parishville fire departments, volunteers were able to keep the blaze from spreading to the rest of the apartment.

Parker said the man and the woman who live there were not home when the blaze broke out.

He said a couple of pets died in the fire.

The cause of the blaze is under investigation.

The Central and Northern New York Chapter of the American Red Cross said volunteers provided emergency aid to the people who lived in the apartment.