ELLENVILLE, N.Y. — For Levi Hecht, 613 Automotive “was always a dream and it’s still a dream and it will be again,” he said Friday, standing in a steady rain near the ruins of his used car dealership and repair shop. The business on Main Street (U.S. Route 209) at the south end of the village of Ellenville was being used as a set and staging area for the HBO miniseries "I Know This Much is True" when it caught fire and burned to the ground early Thursday. - Advertisement - Hecht said none of the dealership's vehicles for sale were lost in the blaze, because they had been moved to other locations for the duration of the HBO shoot, but a "a few" vehicles that were in the business' repair bays were destroyed. Also lost were about 20 vintage cars that were leased and rented for the filming of the miniseries, which is set in the 1960s. "Iconic Corvettes" were among them, Hecht said, noting they were like ones he saw at the site as a boy. Hecht said one of the cars destroyed in the repair bays was a 1989 Cadillac Brougham with only 3,600 miles on its odometer that he bought as a birthday present for his father, Rabbi Shea Hecht of Kingston. Instead, Hecht said, he showed his father the remains of the car when the older man visited the lot Friday morning. Hecht said he got a call about 1 a.m. Thursday telling him his 10,000-square-foot business was on fire. He said he lives less than five minutes from the site and that when he arrived, “there was flames roughly 90, 100 feet up in the sky." "At the point that I got up here, the front of the building was on fire and it just didn’t stop. It was getting bigger and bigger and bigger," he said. "It was just a site of full devastation. … There was one explosion at a time. There was a bunch of vehicles inside there and they were just catching — vehicles in the front that were catching on fire, vehicles inside that were catching on fire. ... It was extreme, extreme heat.” Ellenville Mayor Jeff Kaplan told the Freeman on Thursday that HBO equipment left at the site "caused a spark," which ignited flammable materials on the set. But both Hecht and village Police Chief Phillip Mattracion said Friday that the cause of the fire remained under investigation. Mattracion, though, said arson is not suspected. An HBO employee sitting in a pickup parked across Route 209 from the fire scene Friday morning had no comment, and a company representative could not be reached for comment. An HBO statement in a USA Today story Friday said production of “I Know This Much is True” has been "temporarily suspended” but will resume shortly. Kaplan said HBO "lost millions [of dollars] in movie equipment" in the fire. Prior to filming in Ellenville, HBO shot portions of the miniseries in the town of Ulster and the Poughkeepsie area. Hecht has operated 613 Automotive in Ellenville for about seven years and has dealerships of the same name in Monticello and New Hampton. He said the 15 employees of the Ellenville location will be moved to the other locations and will not lose their jobs. Hecht declined to comment about insurance matters but said he is "thinking of how to rebuild this place." "Ellenville means a lot to 613," he said. "We started in Ellenville. We intend to stay here. The site over here is a big part of Ellenville. When you drive into Ellenville [from the south], this is what you remember. As a kid, this is all I saw coming in. It was always exciting over here. It was an exciting bunch of cars. The Collier family ran a really exciting spot over here.” The Colliers operated a Chevrolet/Oldsmobile dealership at the site before Hecht took over. Hecht grew up in New York City but spent time in Ellenville at his family's second home, he said. Mattracion said Thursday that fire was under control about 4 a.m. and largely out by 6 a.m., but that firefighters continued to soak hots spots for several hours afterward. The fire was declared fully doused at 10 a.m. The dealership building was a total loss, and three nearby houses were damaged by the fire and condemned. Families living in those houses were relocated, the police chief said. "I Know This Much is True," which is to air in six parts next year, is about a troubled relationship between twin brothers, one of whom is institutionalized. Mark Ruffalo, who lives in Sullivan County plays both brothers and is the executive producer. The miniseries also stars Oscar winner Melissa Leo of Stone Ridge, Rosie Donnell, Kathryn Hahn, Juliette Lewis, Archie Panjabi and Imogen Poots.<doc-sep>For an upcoming HBO series, a recreation of a 1990s Chevrolet dealer was made in Ellenville, New York, complete with 27 pristine cars from the era. Sadly, most of them burned to the ground when the dealership taken over for filming, the 613 Automotive Group, caught fire. The Poughkeepsie Journal reports that firefighters first responded to fire at 12:58 am Thursday morning, and it wasn't put out completely until 10:00 am. It took 15 local fire crews to put the fire out. Fortunately, no one was injured, but the cars weren't so lucky. Images courtesy of Amberly Jane Campbell/Shawangunk Journal. The cars were provided by a company owned by Automobile New York Bureau Chief Jamie Kitman, who told the publication the cars lost included "several Corvettes, Camaros, a minty C1500 pickup, a 454 SS pickup," and a low-mile 1990 Chevrolet Beretta Indy pace car replica. He also wrote about the painful experience for Automobile: "Fortunately, everyone is insured by the production and they will be made whole, financially. And no one was injured—or worse. Still, there is no amount of money and nothing you can say about a total loss of a motor vehicle that makes it right, although everyone I called took comfort in the fact that no people were injured. While fire inspectors, police, and insurance claims adjusters poke through the ashes, the cars that can still move leave the site, while others sit, charred and grim as could be. We don’t know yet what caused the fire. We don’t know why it spread so fast. Surely with this much at stake, they’ll get to the bottom of it soon enough." HBO told the Poughkeepsie Journal that production of the series has been suspended, though in his column, Kitman notes that soon, everyone will be back to work to recreate the 1990s Chevy dealership again. This content is imported from YouTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io<doc-sep>A fire destroyed a Hudson Valley auto dealership where HBO is filming a series starring “Avengers: Endgame" star Mark Ruffalo on Thursday morning. According to the Hudson Valley Post, roads had been closed by the Ellenville Police Department around the 613 Automotive Group in Ellenville for filming beginning at 1 a.m. on Thursday. Odom.TV shared a video of the massive blaze on Facebook: 2019-05-09 - Massive 3 ALRM Structure Fire on Movie Set/Auto Dealership in Ellenville, NY Type: Fire Description: On Thursday, May 9, 2019, around 1:00 am, a 3 alarm structure fire broke out at 613 Automotive in Ellenville, NY. This auto dealership was being used as a set for an upcoming HBO film. It is unclear as to what caused the fire. We will update this as the story progresses. Responding agencies include the Ellenville Fire Department, Napanoch Fire Department, Ghramsville Fire Department, the New York State Police, Ellenville Police Department, and several other state and local agencies. Location: 188 S Main St, Ellenville, NY 12428 Injuries: N/A Deaths: N/A Time: 1:00 am EST. HIPAA and the News Media: The law does not directly apply to the news media (unless a media employer acts as a health plan or healthcare provider – by offering onsite medical care, for example; or a reporter works for a publication that is covered – such as a hospital newsletter). (Source: PA News Media) Video Licensing: By purchasing any video license from Odom.TV you agree to acknowledge Odom.TV by placing a watermark on all videos you publish. You MUST place this watermark on all video licenses you purchase unless gaining explicit permission from an Odom.TV staff member. Image Licensing: You are NOT required to acknowledge Odom.TV if you purchase an image license. If you do so choose to acknowledge Odom.TV you may. NOTE: MOST VIDEOS COME WITH WATERMARKS ALREADY ON THEM Posted by Odom.TV on Thursday, May 9, 2019 The fire caused traffic delays in Ulster County on Thursday morning, but no injuries were reported. It was unclear what caused the fire, according to the Post. The dealership is a set for “I Know This Much is True,” an upcoming HBO series starring Ruffalo, who plays twin brothers. The series has been filming all over the Hudson valley. It also stars Melissa Leo, Archie Panjabi, Imogen Poots, Juliette Lewis and Rosie O’Donnell. ABC 7 reports that some antique cars were at the dealership at the time of the fire.<doc-sep>
ELLENVILLE, N.Y. — A massive fire early Thursday consumed 613 Automotive, a used car dealership at the south end of the village that was being used as the staging area and a set for the filming of an HBO miniseries. Ellenville Police Chief Phil Mattracion said the cause of the 1 a.m. fire at 188 S. Main St. (U.S. Route 209) remained under investigation, but village Mayor Jeff Kaplan put the blame squarely on the HBO operation. - Advertisement - Kaplan said Thursday afternoon that equipment left at the site "caused a spark," which ignited flammable materials on the set. "Once it started, it was minutes before the whole building was in flames," he said. The mayor said HBO had "refabbed" the entire structure for use as a set for the miniseries, called "I Know This Much is True." "They made it into a 1950s-1960s dealership, and something they did there caused the fire," Kaplan said. Mattracion said only that there was no indication of arson, but “it’s still a fresh scene." There were no injuries, he said. Mattracion said the fire was under control about 4 a.m. and largely out by 6 a.m., but that firefighters continued to soak hots spots for several hours afterward. The fire was declared fully doused at 10 a.m. Video from the scene shows both the building and vehicles parked outside of it engulfed in flames. The dealership building was a total loss, and three nearby houses were damaged by the fire and condemned, the police chief said. He said the families living in the houses were relocated, but he did not know how many people in total were impacted. Mattracion said 15 fire companies from Ulster, Sullivan and Orange counties were at the scene, along with village and state police, the Ulster County Sheriff's Office, the state Department of Environmental Conservation, and the Ellenville First Aid and Rescue Squad. The chief said there was a considerable amount of equipment owned by HBO inside the car dealership and on the grounds that was damaged or destroyed by the fire. He said a tractor-trailer, vans and about 20 classic cars belonging to the HBO production were lost to the blaze. Kaplan said HBO "lost millions [of dollars] in movie equipment." "I Know This Much is True" was filming this week in Ellenville after recent shoots in the town of Ulster and the Poughkeepsie area. Mattracion said production representatives told him it's unlikely the footage shot in Ellenville will be used in the miniseries because local filming was not completed before the fire. The miniseries, starring Oscar winner Melissa Leo of Stone Ridge and Mark Ruffalo of Sullivan County, was "Ellenville's Hollywood debut, so to speak, and it was sad all around," the chief said. "I Know This Much is True," which is to air in six parts next year, is about a troubled relationship between twin brothers, one of whom is institutionalized. It also stars Rosie O'Donnell, Kathryn Hahn, Juliette Lewis, Archie Panjabi and Imogen Poots. Ruffalo plays both twins and is the executive producer of the miniseries. Kaplan said the car dealership building "was always viewed as a gateway into the village [from the south] and has been there my entire life, and I'm 67." He said the building housed a Chevrolet/Oldsmobile dealership before 613 Automotive moved in. In its most recent state, the dealership comprised a showroom, a large garage and numerous bays, the mayor said. The 613 dealership is owned by Levi Hecht, who could not be reached for comment Thursday. In 2014, Hecht donated about $3,000 to the Ellenville Police Department so it could purchase six body cameras for officers. There also are 613 Automotive locations in Monticello and New Hampton.