An excavator uses a mattress to clear off debris from the top of the last floor to be demolished at 333 Madison Ave., which was severely damaged from a Fourth of July fire, on Thursday in Albany.

Police gather at the scene of a shooting and fire on Madison Avenue in Albany on the night of July Fourth.

People driving down Madison Avenue in Albany on July 6 stop to look at damage done on the Fourth of July when a flare gun was fired into an apartment building window, starting a fire that necessitated the demolition of two buildings.

The demolition of 333 Madison Ave., which was severely damaged from a Fourth of July fire, continued on Thursday in Albany.

What Leopold De Tiere built, brick by brick, a teenager destroyed with the pull of a trigger.

De Tiere was an immigrant, born in Belgium, who became a prominent Albany carpenter, craftsman and builder in the decades after the Civil War. Among his many structures was 333 Madison Ave., an Italianate rowhouse with intricately designed bays and cornices.

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The elegant building stood for 154 years — until the Fourth of July, when a 15-year-old fired a flare into the first-floor apartment, igniting a fire that destroyed the building and its one-story neighbor to the east, the defunct Madison Grille.

At roughly the same time and place, during an inexplicable burst of violence near Empire State Plaza, a second teenager fired rounds from a handgun, wounding four bystanders presumably attending the city’s annual fireworks display, including a 17-year-old brought to the intensive care unit at Albany Medical Center Hospital.

On Thursday, city police announced the arrest of both teens. The reason behind their actions, if there could ever be one, remains unclear.

Amid that news, crews continued to raze what remained of 333 Madison. An excavator ripped through living rooms where children once played, dining rooms where families had gathered, bedrooms where the weary regained strength. One more piece of Albany’s rich history disappeared to be replaced with… well, a vacant lot, most likely.........

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