ATHENS, N.Y. - An Athens pizza shop burned down in Greene County Wednesday morning.
Firefighters were called to a "Slice of Athens" at 29 South Washington Street just before 5:30 a.m. to find the business fully engulfed. Four area departments battled the intense blaze.
Athens Fire Chief John Greco says they were able to knock it down without any problem.
Investigators are now combing through the rubble to determine what started it. Nobody was hurt.
Slice of Athens owner, Mike Passaretti, said he was in shock by what he saw when he arrived Wednesday morning. His employees closed up around nine Tuesday night.
The building was more than a century old and had been a home and a number of other businesses before it was the current pizza shop. Chief Greco calls it a big loss for the small village.
The fire also knocked out cable and internet service to about 5,000 Mid-Hudson Cable subscribers across the Hudson in Columbia County. Crews spent the morning splicing together the damaged fiber optic cables to get service back up and running. Verizon phone service in the area was also affected for a short time.
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