When someone driving on North Road in Milan called 911 at 7:37 p.m. on Wednesday, March 5, Milan and Pine Plains volunteer fire departments quickly headed to what they believed would be a small garage fire. Upon arrival, they found flames engulfing an entire residence and called for backup.
Additional units from Stanfordville, East Clinton, West Clinton, Rhinebeck, Red Hook, Tivoli, Livingston, and Taghkanic quickly responded to the blaze at 329 North Road. While the fire took more than seven hours to extinguish, no one was injured.
The town of Milan does not have hydrants, so tens of thousands of gallons of water were continuously tanked in by fire engines from an unnamed pond on Academy Hill Road roughly three-quarters of a mile away and piped up the driveway to the large house and attached garage. Both were destroyed.
Built in 1960, the single-story house was approximately 1,900 square feet. It was previously inhabited by Joseph Di Sanza, who was found deceased in the house in January 2024. The house was vacant at the time of the fire and was previously condemned by the building inspector.
Jeff Galm, Chief of the Milan Fire Department, called the building “a hoarder house,” adding, “It was stockpiled with storage boxes and bins. It made getting to the fire more difficult.”
Members of the Dutchess County Fire Investigation Division, who were present at the scene, designated the official cause of the fire as undetermined.
Central Hudson arrived to disconnect the power lines, and a backhoe from JSK Excavating in Millbrook was dispatched to tear down some of the structure’s walls, allowing the firefighters better access to the less reachable flames. By 10:06 p.m. the fire was deemed under control, but it was not entirely extinguished until 3:30 a.m.
“I want to extend my gratitude to all of those fire departments, the Dutchess County Fire Investigation Division, the Town of Milan Highway Department, the Town of Milan Building Inspector, Central Hudson, the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office, and JSK Excavating, that came on a rainy night and stayed late,” Galm said.
According to the Times Union, when Di Sanza was found dead in 2024, 22 malnourished Great Danes were rescued from his property by multiple animal welfare organizations, including the Dutchess County SPCA. Prior to his death, the SPCA had been in contact with Di Sanza and persuaded him to surrender all but two dogs in 2021. However, despite initially agreeing not to do so, he resumed breeding the dogs until his death.
The last remaining dog rescued from the house in the Dutchess County SPCA’s care, Valentine, was adopted by a family the day before the blaze. “Valentine was with us for over a year. We put in the work to rehabilitate him,” said Lynne Meloccaro, executive director of the Dutchess County SPCA. “He just found his forever home.”