Police, firefighters and other first responders rushed to the scene of a blaze at 3358 Route 28 in Shokan that broke out shortly before 4pm.
Shots have been heard from within the building, according to a post on Ulster County Fire/Rescue Incidents, a Facebook page that posts information from local scanner traffic. But it is unclear whether those shots were deliberately fired, or simply the result of ammunition going off inside the burning building.
In a news account, the Times Herald-Record cites unspecified reports of an "emotionally disturbed person firing shots."
A Daily Freeman reporter managed to snap a photo of the scene before being turned away by officials.
A New York State Police trooper with the Kingston station, who asked not to be identified, told the Watershed Post around 5pm that he did not believe there was currently any active shooter situation on the scene.
An alert from the Ulster County Sheriff's Office states that Route 28 is closed near the intersection with Bostock Road.
The Watershed Post spoke with assistant chief Steve Fuller of the Olive Fire Department from the scene around 6pm.
Fuller neither confirmed nor denied reports that there had been a shooter, but said that as firefighters were approaching the scene, they were told by county officials to keep back from the structure because shots had been fired.
Fuller also said that Central Hudson shut down power to the electric grid in the region so firefighters could safely battle the blaze.
"Usually in a structure fire, we power down [the house] so it's not a danger," he said. "For safety's sake, because we couldn't get close to it, they shut down the grid."
Around 6pm, Central Hudson's outage map showed 1,157 customers without power in the surrounding area.
We are updating this post, and also posting new information on the incident to the Storify feed below, as we learn more. This post was last updated at 6:30pm.
Correction: The address of the fire, according to a New York State Police statement released Tuesday evening, was 3358 Route 28, not 3338.
