Schenectady emergency crews held a news conference to address the body found weeks after a fire. Our Erin Vannella reports.

  To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. -- "When four of the residents say we have no indication anyone else is in there, nobody is reported missing for at least two weeks and the property owner is saying the third floor is vacant, what other conclusion should we have made?" said Schenectady Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett.

Emergency crews explain their actions at the December 10th fire at 902 McClellan Street where two weeks after the fact, the body of Patrick Sheehan was found in demolition debris.

"If there had been any reasonable belief, or reason to be suspect of the fact that Patrick Sheehan may indeed have been a victim of that fire, fire chief, myself and city hall would have never hesitated to immediately tear that building down," Bennett said.

As it was, emergency crews say they followed procedure to determine if anyone was in the building and then respected building code enforcement wishes to pull firefighters out when the structure was deemed unstable.

"The devastation to that apartment was horrendous. The floor had been burned out from the second floor apartment. It was hanging by a thread," said Schenectady Fire Chief Robert Farstad.

Still, Farstad says crews got to the scene in three minutes and did everything they could to knock down the 2,000 degree flames and to get anyone inside, out.

"If we had any inkling, even one chance out of a million there was someone in that apartment, I would've taken the appropriate measures immediately and asked for permission to demolish the third floor and look for a victim," Farstad said.

Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett says he respects the decisions of the three fire chiefs present that day who had 92 years of experience between them. Now it's a criminal investigation since the incident has been deemed suspicious.