By Michael Frazier
Newsday (New York)
Copyright 2007 Newsday, Inc.
HEWLETT, N.Y. — Fourteen Hewlett residents were displaced by a fire in their two-story cooperative apartment building, a Nassau County relief agency said yesterday.
One of them, Richard Allen, 62, spent the night at his daughter’s home in nearby Lynbrook after the fire at 4:27 p.m. Tuesday at Hewlett Park apartments.
Allen said he didn’t care nearly as much about what he lost in the blaze as what was spared - especially his 14-year-old tabby cat, C.D., whose name, he said, stands for “calm down.”
“He got out somehow and someone found him under a car,” said Allen, who was at work when the fire started. “He was wet and smoky.”
Allen added, “You can replace mementos. You can’t replace that [C.D.].”
Fire officials called the blaze, which broke out in a second-floor apartment, an accident. The investigation is preliminary, but officials are focusing on a blowtorch a plumbing company was using for repairs, said Vincent McManus, division supervisor of the county fire marshal’s office.
None of the residents were injured. Five firefighters were hurt, with four taken to a local hospital and a fifth treated at the scene for a head injury, Hewlett Fire Chief John Quaranto said.
Quaranto said the four firefighters taken to the hospital were treated and released yesterday. Two of them had head injuries from falling pieces of the ceiling, one had a cut on his hand, and the fourth was treated for exhaustion.
The fire severely damaged 16 units in the complex. The residents living in those units, including Allen, were temporarily barred yesterday from returning to the building to search for personal items because the structure was unsafe.
Allen said he was told he wouldn’t be able to enter his apartment until sometime today.
Other residents living in other parts of the apartment complex also couldn’t return to their homes, because the utilities had been turned off while damage was assessed. Those residents were expected to be able to return to their homes sometime last night, fire officials said.
A man who spoke to contractors yesterday, and who residents said was the apartment manager, declined to comment.
Since the fire, volunteers with the county’s chapter of the American Red Cross donated food and clothing to residents and made arrangements for temporary shelter.
Margaret Bullwinkle, a spokeswoman for the relief agency, said 11 residents had three-night stays arranged at the Long Beach Motel Inn in Island Park. An employee at the motel said the tenants occupied six rooms.
After the fire, about 28 residents initially signed up for relief agency services but later sought help from relatives.
“The majority of the people were staying with friends or family members,” Bullwinkle said.