NEWBURGH – City of Newburgh Police are investigating the latest incident of gun violence. A ShotSpotter activation alerted them to shots fired in the Washington and Federal Street area in the early evening on Wednesday.

At about the same time, a gunshot victim was brought by a personal vehicle to Montefiore St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital.

It was not immediately known of both incidents are connected.

Police Chief Anthony Geraci, at the downtown scene, declined to comment about the ongoing investigation.

TOWN OF POUGHKEEPSIE – On Wednesday afternoon the Arlington Fire Department was recalled to the site of Wednesday morning’s pre-dawn four-alarm fire that destroyed at least two Main Street buildings and damaged others.

According to fire officials, outside contractors were working in the rear of the damaged buildings, including Tony’s Pizza Pit, with excavators to remove the collapsed structures for safety reasons.  An excavator operator working in the alley between Hurricane Grill and Tony’s Pizza Pit observed heavy smoke coming from the basement of the building immediately east of the pizza place at 784 Main Street.

The Arlington Fire Department was alerted and responded within minutes, closing down a portion of Main Street and Raymond Avenue to allow fire apparatus to operate.  Arlington’s aerial ladder truck was placed on Main Street in front of the destroyed pizza place and began to drown the structures with water while a crew from one of Arlington’s engines used a hose and worked to gain access to the basement of the building where the heavy smoke was rising from.

One fire official told Mid-Hudson News that the basement fire was likely caused by the ignition of oil in the building’s heating oil fuel tank and the firefighters were taking appropriate measures to contain and extinguish the flames.

As of 6:00 p.m., the fire department was still operating at the scene and traffic was being diverted away from the highly-traveled area.

Video of some of the efforts on Wednesday afternoon:

DOVER – A pedestrian was struck and killed by Metro-North commuter train 910 around 6:36 a.m. on Wednesday, an MTA spokesman said.

The incident involving the southbound train occurred on the Harlem Line near Dover Furnace Road between  the Wassaic and Harlem Valley stations.

MTA Police were investigating. and the sex of the victim was not immediately known.

This was the second pedestrian-Metro-North fatality involving a pedestrian and an Metro-North in a matter of days. The first individual, a woman, was struck and killed by a southbound Hudson Line train near Peekskill.

WALLKILL – A Dingmans Ferry, Pennsylvania woman was killed in a two-car crash on Interstate 84 in the Town of Wallkill, State Police said.

The afternoon accident on January 29 claimed the life of Sarah Williams, according to troopers.

Police said preliminary investigation determined a 2020 Acura RDX and a 2019 Dodge were traveling westbound when for unknown reasons they collided, ran off the road, causing the Dodge to flip over. Both vehicles wound up down an embankment. Williams, the driver of the Dodge, was pronounced dead at the scene. The other driver was not injured, police said.

Troopers were assisted at the scene by the Mechanicstown Fire  Department and Town of Wallkill EMS.

Anyone who may have witnessed the crash of may have seen the vehicles prior to it are asked to call the Middletown State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation at 845-344-5300.

BEACON – The City of Beacon is in “Excellent financial condition,” Mayor Lee Kyriacou says. He made his proclamation during his first state of the city address delivered before the city council on Monday evening.

He said the city’s finances are doing quite well.

“Beacon’s financial position is the best in memory. Through my 20-plus years of service to the city as a council member and now as mayor, I have always been the taxpayer’s fiscal watchdog working to eliminate property tax increases while expanding services and investing in the city’s infrastructure,” he said.

One major financial shot in the arm comes from his renegotiated sales tax agreement with Dutchess County which puts $1 million in the city coffers this year.