Churchill: Owner of destroyed tavern is focusing on blessings

Owner of destroyed tavern is focusing on blessings

At about 11 p.m., a BMW driven by a teenager veered off Consaul Road, smashed into a parked truck and sent both vehicles careening through a wall of the tavern, where they burst into flames.

In the weeks since, attention has rightly focused on the outpouring of community support for Niko DiNovo, a 16-year-old passenger in the BMW who was horribly burned in the crash and continues to recover at Westchester Medical Center.

The crash and the subsequent fire also destroyed Blessing's, which opened in 1946 and was the oldest continuously operating tavern in Colonie.

Altrock, 60, who has avoided the media limelight in recent weeks, described how the crash terrorized the 30 or so people crowded into the tavern Oct. 28, a karaoke night.

[...] when the natural gas line ruptured, Altrock said, a third fireball rolled through the dining room.

When the vehicles crashed into the building, their progress was stopped by the tavern's heavy antique stove.

Had it not been there and had the building not been made of cement, the vehicles would have exploded in the dining room, Altrock said.

The depth of feeling for Altrock and Blessing's was obvious at the fundraiser for employees, including a cook whose leg was badly injured by the crash.

Inside, plates and pint glasses rest on tables, evidence of a night that quickly turned horrific.