Crime and arson experts were investigating Monday after a doting single dad and his two young sons died in a house fire in Goshen, N.Y., over the weekend.
Police and fire personnel rushed to a multifamily home on Pulaski Highway in the town about 66 miles northwest of New York City just after 8 p.m. Saturday “to find the building completely engulfed in flames,” New York State Police said in a statement.
Inside on the ground floor, responders found Shane Munn, 50, and the two boys, aged 12 and 17, state police said. Responders administered CPR, but Munn was pronounced dead at the scene. The boys were rushed to Garnett Health Medical Center in Wallkill and died later, state troopers said.
A mother and two children who lived on the upper floor were able to escape, neighbors told ABC News.
Friends and town officials described Munn as a devoted father to the two boys, who had autism and were nonverbal, according to News12 Westchester.
“He took really good care of those boys,” neighbor Crystal Enfield told ABC News. “He was a good father, it’s really sad.”
Landlord John Porcaro had just spoken to his tenant the day before the fire, he told News12 Westchester on Sunday.
“I just can’t believe it,” he said, noting that Munn was a good tenant and “a great dad.”
Porcaro also expressed concern for the upstairs tenant, a woman who had recently lost her husband.
The State Police Monroe Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI), assisted by the Orange County Fire Investigation Unit and the Hudson Valley Arson and Explosives Task Force, is investigating to determine the cause of the fire, troopers said. Neighbors told ABC News that they saw smoke and heavy flames coming out the kitchen window on the ground floor.
An impromptu memorial sprang up outside the house, and the Town of Goshen Police Department posted a photo of the decimated house captioned, “Prayers up in the Town of Goshen please.”
“In moments of great loss, we are reminded of the strength of our community and the courage of those who serve,” Orange County Sheriff Paul Arteta said in a statement. “Our first responders put themselves in harm’s way to protect others, and their dedication does not go unnoticed. We stand with the family and the Goshen community during this difficult time.”
