After the 13th Street fire: a vigil Sunday at Bulldog Field, and how to help the boy who got out

A week ago Sunday, a little after 9:30 p.m. on September 27, fire broke out in a two-story house on 13th Street in Troy. By the time it was out, two adults had died at the scene: Dominick Rizzo Jr., 37, and his fiancée, Alicia Ruefle, 39. Their daughter, Abigail Rizzo, 11, was flown to the burn unit at Westchester Medical Center and died the next day. Their son, Dominick Rizzo III, 13, got out by jumping from a second-floor window with help from a neighbor. He was not seriously hurt.

Two Troy firefighters were treated for burns and released. Watervliet, the Watervliet Arsenal, Green Island and Albany sent help. Fire Chief Richard Cellucci said the fire appears to have started on the first floor, and that early findings suggest the house may not have had working smoke detectors; the state Office of Fire Prevention and Control is investigating. The family bred huskies. Seven of the dogs died, three were taken in by a relative, and one, named Onyx, is still missing.

“There are no words that can adequately describe the loss this family is experiencing,” Troy Mayor Carmella Mantello said.

Sunday evening at Bulldog Field

The family’s ties ran through Brunswick youth football, where a lot of Speigletown and Pleasantdale kids play too. A remembrance gathering is set for Sunday, October 4 at 6:30 p.m. at Brunswick Bulldog Field, 4165 Route 2, Troy. Bring a candle and dress for the evening cold.

How to help

Everything the surviving boy owned was lost. Organizers say he wears a medium shirt and a size 8 shoe. Clothing and other donations are being collected at:

• Geer Field in South Troy (South Troy Pop Warner), Monday through Friday, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
• The Brunswick Bulldogs organization and Duncan’s Dairy Bar on Hoosick Road.
• Engel’s Acres, which is donating all of Sunday’s donut-sale profits.

An online fundraiser organized by the family’s friends had passed $150,000 by Friday, according to WNYT, up from about $41,500 the morning after the fire. If you want to give that way, search the family’s names on GoFundMe and check that the organizer is who they say they are before you donate; large tragedies attract copycat pages.

The smoke-detector note

The chief’s early finding is the kind of detail that is hard to read and worth acting on. Working detectors on every level and in every bedroom, with batteries changed when the clocks change, are the single cheapest thing a household can do. Our emergency preparedness page has the checklist, and the Speigletown and Melrose fire companies will tell you how to get detectors if cost is the obstacle.

Sources: reporting by WAMC (September 28), Spectrum News, CBS6, the Times Union and 1st Responder News on the fire, and WNYT on the vigil and donation sites. Names and ages are as published by those outlets and confirmed by the Troy Fire Department. Donation details are the organizers’; confirm before you drive over.