The Lake Placid Volunteer Fire Department was called to the scene at 1970 Saranac Ave. twice that night. The second time, the fire was much more extensive, according to Lake Placid Fire Driver Greg Hayes, and the apartment building was a total loss. The department brought in an excavator to help move debris, and as of press time on Tuesday, no cause had been determined.

Larry Brockway, president of the Lake Placid Volunteer Ambulance Service, confirmed that one person was transported during the fire, but he was unable to comment on the patient’s condition.

There were a total of 17 units lost in the fire, according to the property manager, John Piper, who lives on site in the building closer to Saranac Avenue that did not burn down.

He said a few of the families had met with Red Cross volunteers the night of the fire and expressed concern for the displaced residents, saying the owner of the property wanted to make the housing at this property affordable.

A fire rages at Whiteface Vistas Apartments on Monday night. (Provided photo — Lake Placid Volunteer Fire Department)

“I’m just gathering help for them,” Piper said. “I live in a different building, but at the same time, I feel it a lot.”

Mary Alice Molgard, a disaster public affairs volunteer partner for the Eastern New York region of the Red Cross, said Red Cross volunteers met with nine adults from five households Monday night. A few more residents contacted them Tuesday morning.

In addition to providing some financial assistance and immediate essentials like hygiene kits, the Red Cross volunteers can help connect residents to resources like finding a place to stay and replacing things like glasses or medications.

Molgard said residents can get help by calling 1-800-REDCROSS or by visiting redcross.org. When it comes to finding housing after a disaster, Molgard said they work most closely with county social services departments.

However, the Red Cross still needs help reaching families who are in need. In just the last 36 hours, Molgard said volunteers in the Eastern New York region responded to three fatal fires in Massena, Albany and the Hudson Valley region. At the same time, volunteers from the region are still in Los Angeles helping with fire relief efforts.

About five dozen members from fire departments from around the region battled a blaze at an apartment building on Saranac Avenue Monday night. The departments were not fully back in service until 2:04 p.m. Tuesday. (Provided photo — Lake Placid Volunteer Fire Department)

“Our resources are stretched very thin right now,” she said.

Donations can be made online at the Red Cross website.

No cause of the fire has been determined. However, a resident of the building, who wished to remain anonymous due to fear of retribution, said residents had been noticing electrical issues for at least several months leading up to the fire.

The resident said the lights would often flicker, get dimmer and that sometimes the outlets wouldn’t work at all. They said their unit didn’t have functioning heat for the last six months and the building manager did not respond to requests to fix it, so they had to buy space heaters. The space heaters were being used up until the time of the fire. A few days ago, they said a cabin on the same property had an outlet briefly catch fire.

“It’s hard to say I’m surprised that the building burned to the ground, because I’m not really surprised at all,” they said.

A mound of frozen rubble was all that was left of one of the Whiteface Vistas Apartments buildings after a devastating fire, shown Tuesday afternoon. (Enterprise photo — Grace McIntyre)

Piper said he had not heard about the incident with the outlet. He attributed the other electrical issues to residents overloading the outlets, but said there was nothing that he believed would have been a fire hazard.

Charlie Hubbard, the owner of the property, lives in Conneticut and arrived in Lake Placid Tuesday afternoon after the fire. He said he hadn’t heard about any electrical issues and wanted to wait for more information before speaking publicly.

The Lake Placid Volunteer Fire Department was first on the scene at 7:04 p.m. Monday. They arrived on the scene with three trucks and 27 members. The Saranac Lake Volunteer Fire Department responded on mutual aid, and Hayes estimated there were about 35 there.

The department was back in service at 10:10 p.m., only to be called back a little over two hours later, at 12:44 a.m.

The department responded with four trucks, receiving mutual aid from the departments in Saranac Lake, Bloomingdale, Wilmington, Keene, Keene Valley, Jay, Upper Jay, Ausable Forks, Elizabethtown and Paul Smiths-Gabriels. Hayes estimated there were about 60 members on site.

The LPVFD was back in service the second time at 2:44 p.m. on Tuesday.