Fire · Police · Rangers · EMS
Public Safety
Who to call, and where they are. In any life-threatening emergency, always dial 911 first.
Speigletown District Volunteer Fire Company
Fire & Basic Life Support First Response · Rensselaer County Station 35
Volunteer department. Social hall available for rent; monthly community breakfasts.
New York State Police — Brunswick (Troop G)
State Police station serving the area
Rensselaer County Sheriff's Office
County law enforcement
NYS DEC Forest Rangers (Region 4)
Wildland search & rescue, wildfire, outdoor emergencies
Rensselaer County 911 / Emergency Services
County dispatch & emergency management
Power & utility safety
⚡ Power outages right now
Live from National Grid's public outage map, checked every few minutes. Spectrum doesn't publish a public outage feed — check spectrum.net or their app for internet/TV status.
⚠️ See a downed power line?
Always assume a downed line is live and deadly — and stay at least 200 feet away. The ground around it can be energized.
- Never touch the line — or anything touching it: fences, branches, puddles, guardrails, a vehicle.
- Never drive over a downed line.
- Keep children and pets well back.
- If a line falls on your car: stay inside and call 911. Only if fire forces you out, jump clear so you never touch the car and the ground at the same time, then shuffle away with small steps.
- Don't attempt a rescue — call 911 and let crews with the right equipment do it.
Report it: 911 if anyone is in danger · National Grid 1-800-867-5222 · National Grid's downed-wires guidance →
📞 Call 811 before you dig
Planting a tree, setting a fence or mailbox post, building a deck, or any digging? New York law requires you to have underground utility lines marked first. It's free, and it keeps you from hitting a gas, electric, water, or cable line.
- Contact Dig Safely New York at least 2 full working days before you dig (and no more than 10) — even for small projects.
- Call 811 or 1-800-962-7962, or request marks online.
- Wait for every utility to mark its lines with paint or flags, and confirm all have responded before starting.
- Dig carefully — by hand within two feet of the marks, and respect the markings.
Start a request: 811 · 1-800-962-7962 · Dig Safely New York →
Stay informed & get involved
Stay informed
Get official emergency alerts
NY-Alert is New York State's free all-hazards notification system — road closures, severe weather, hazmat incidents, and other emergencies, by text, email, or phone call. Weather watches and warnings from the National Weather Service also appear automatically at the top of this site whenever one is active for our area.
Listen in
Listen to the county scanner
Rensselaer County's public-safety radio — fire, EMS, and police dispatch — streams live on OpenMHz, which also keeps a searchable archive of recent calls you can play back.
Feeds can run a little behind, some channels are encrypted and won't appear, and it's for situational awareness only — in an emergency, always call 911.
Answer the call
Volunteer with the Speigletown District Volunteer Fire Company
Our fire protection depends on volunteers — firematic responders, fire police, and social members. No prior experience is necessary, and training is provided free of charge.
Open burning & campfires
Open burning is the single greatest cause of wildfires in New York. State rules (DEC Part 215) set what you can and can't burn — and towns can be stricter, so when in doubt, ask our fire department about local rules before you light anything.
- Campfires & cooking fires under 3 feet high and 4 feet wide — charcoal or dry, clean, untreated, unpainted wood only.
- Ceremonial bonfires, including respectful flag disposal.
- Brush burning on your own property — downed limbs and branches under 6 inches thick and 8 feet long. Allowed in towns under 20,000 residents (Schaghticoke qualifies) — except March 16 – May 14, when brush burning is banned statewide for wildfire season.
- Farms over 5 acres in active agriculture have separate rules for on-site organic waste — see DEC's page below.
- Burning trash is illegal statewide — including in burn barrels, wood stoves, fireplaces, and outdoor boilers. Barrel fires burn too cool for complete combustion, so they put off toxic smoke and soot.
- Loose leaves and leaf piles.
- Treated or painted wood — pressure-treated lumber, plywood, particle board, stained wood. (Kiln-dried firewood is fine.)
- Accelerants — never start a fire with gasoline, kerosene, or lighter fluid.
- Check the fire danger first — DEC's fire danger map is updated weekly.
- Skip windy days.
- Keep anything flammable at least 3 feet back, keep water or an extinguisher within reach, and never leave a fire unattended.
- Burn local firewood to avoid spreading invasive species.
- When done, fully extinguish — stir in water or dirt until it's out cold.
A note on addresses: Speigletown mail says "Troy, NY," but we're in the Town of Schaghticoke — not the City of Troy. In the city itself, open burning of brush, leaves, and yard debris is prohibited year-round. Here in town, the state rules above apply. Either way, leaves can't be burned anywhere in New York — and there's no need to: County Waste picks up yard waste on Mondays, April through November.
Full state rules
Contact details are maintained by neighbors and can change. Please verify critical information with each agency, and let us know if anything here is out of date.