DEFERIET â A fire broke out in the heart of a village with fewer than 300 on Thursday, resulting in the death of a man the mayor considered to be an excellent neighbor who kept to himself and his two dogs.
State investigators are working to determine the cause of a fire in a detached garage at 88 Riverside Drive, that ignited at about 4:30 p.m. A body was found inside the garage after firefighters were able to control the burn. He was identified following an autopsy Friday afternoon as Sean J. Brown, 53.
The mayor of Deferiet, Janet M. Zando, said Mr. Brown lived there for more than 10 years. She can see his garage from her kitchen window. The neighborhood, along with the rest of Deferiet, were built in the early 1900s to accommodate workers at the then-mill. Riverside Drive is on one side and Anderson Avenue on the other, both enclosing two rows of houses. Between the houses is a small alley, like a two-track, where most of the back doors lead and the detached garages are fou