Above: The scene of a propane explosion in the village of Stamford, taken around 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Damage can be seen on the side wall of the house on the right, 59 Main Street, where the explosion occurred. Photo by Michael Martin. 

A propane explosion in the village of Stamford left a Main Street house heavily damaged, displaced six residents, and shut down Route 23/Main Street in the area for several hours on Wednesday, Feb. 19. 

The Stamford Fire Department got a call at 11:46 a.m. about an explosion at 59 Main Street, first assistant fire chief Don Van Etten told the Watershed Post. When the firefighters arrived a few minutes later, smoke was billowing from the house.

Two of the building's six tenants were home at the time of the explosion, Van Etten said. There were no injuries. 

"Two tenants advised me that the building had a major explosion," he said. "There was a minimal amount of fire. We had the fire knocked down very quickly. It was more the damage -- two exterior walls were blown right off the foundation." 

Photo illustration. The reservoir in the background is the Pepacton in Delaware County; photo by Timothy Cox, shared in the Watershed Post's Flickr group pool.

A union representing about 200 watershed police working for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) recently signed a contract with the city's new mayor, Bill de Blasio.

The DEP police contract -- the first labor contract signed under de Blasio's administration -- follows almost a decade of wrangling over the status of the DEP's officers, who have long performed many of the duties of police without the same level of benefits as other city police officers.

Two Margaretville residents and a Saugerties man face felony drug charges, after a search by a state police K-9 turned up almost 700 envelopes of heroin in the car they were traveling in.

On Sunday, Feb. 16 around 11:30 p.m., state police patrolling the New York State Thruway in the Rockland County town of Clarkstown pulled over a 1998 Dodge Stratus for vehicle and traffic infractions, according to a police news release. After the traffic stop, "Marty," a police K-9, alerted troopers to heroin hidden in a dashboard panel and the center console of the car. Troopers found 695 glassine envelopes of heroin, stamped with the brand "5 Star," and syringes. 

Arrested were 36-year-old Joshua Levine and 31-year-old Debra Osborne, both of Margaretville, and 41-year-old Charles Hall of Saugerties. All three face charges of third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, a class B felony, and possession of a hypodermic instrument, a class A misdemeanor. Levine, who was driving the car, was also charged with driving while ability impaired by drugs.