Structure Fire - President Franklin Delano Roosevelt Home - Hyde Park Fire District 1/23/82 - From my archives - FDR Estate - Roosevelt Home

These are probably photo's of the most famous subject matter that I'll ever do and they are scans from color negatives......As far as I know, these are the only photo's in existence that were taken while the fire was still burning...... At least that what I have been told by the National Park Service....The fire occurred just after midnight on January 23rd,1982 at the Hyde Park , N.Y. home of the late President Franklin Roosevelt . Prior to this fire, numerous area fire companies including the Hyde Park Fire Department who cover the FDR historical site, were operating in the below zero temperatures at a large structure fire in the Staatsburg Fire District in the town of Hyde Park. The initial dispatch was for a "routine" automatic fire alarm which Hyde Park had answered numerous times at the home in the past and all were malfunctions.... This time though..... Things were going to be different..... The first units on the scene arrived to find heavy fire from the roof of the home of the thirty-second President of the United States and a national historic treasure. The first due equipment to the scene were Hyde Parks reserve engine and a ladder truck from the Hudson River Psychiatric Center in the Town of Poughkeepsie. By the time the incident was over, 10 area departments were called to the scene and significant fire, smoke, and water damage had occurred to the structure. The fires cause was attributed to an electrical malfunction on the third floor of the home where renovations were in progress at the time of the fire. Through the efforts of all the firefighters who responded to the scene, as well as the efforts of the National Park Service personnel, I don't believe anything irreplaceable was lost in the fire and the building was eventually repaired to it's original stature.... These photo's were on display in the Library of Congress for three months as part of a display the National Park Service had done showing the fire, the damage done, and the repairs that were made to the building. They were also featured in several magazines including Firehouse and also a book about the history of FDR.