ROOSEVELT, LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK
APRIL 3, 2015
An overloaded electrical connection started a fire that left
a 50-year-old man dead and a man and woman injured Friday morning, destroying a
single-room occupancy home in Roosevelt, police and fire officials said.
The Nassau County Fire Marshal's Office division supervisor
for the fire investigations, James Hickman, told media at the scene that the
fire began in a first-floor bedroom, then spread throughout the 2½-story home
on Debevoise Avenue -- a home occupied by at least 10 adults. The fire occurred about 2:20 a.m., police
said.
Roosevelt Fire Chief Derrick Fennell said that it wasn't
until at least 30 minutes after arriving at the blaze that firefighters were
advised there might be someone missing. That was when, he said, the man's body
was discovered
His identity is being withheld "pending positive
identification through DNA," Nassau police said in news release.
The man was found dead in a second-floor bedroom, Fennell
said.
"The fire started in a front room, a front bedroom, as
the result of an electrical accident," Hickman said. "The fire then
spread rapidly into the house, up the staircase, up through the walls --
engulfing the house."
Fennell said fire was everywhere when he and his
firefighters arrived on the scene.
"Upon my arrival, the whole front of the house was
fully involved," Fennell said, "and you had people
self-evacuating."
Two occupants -- a man and a woman -- were injured when they
jumped from a second-floor window, fire officials said. The man suffered an
ankle injury, Fennell said. The woman injured her hand.
Fennell said both were taken by South Hempstead Fire
Department ambulance to Mercy Medical Center in Rockville Centre for treatment.
They were treated and released, police said.
A spokesman for the Red Cross on Long Island said the agency
has placed nine adults who lived in the home in a motel at least through the
weekend. The agency also distributed debit cards to the victims, who are also
being offered mental health counseling services, he said.
More than 100 firefighters from Roosevelt, Hempstead,
Uniondale, Baldwin, South Hempstead, Merrick, Freeport, North Bellmore and
North Merrick responded, officials said. Investigators from the Nassau County
police Arson / Bomb Squad, including a canine unit, also went.
Police said the cause of the fire did not appear to be
suspicious as it was "caused by an overloaded electrical connection."
Fennell said he ran past a burning mattress on a sidewalk --
about 40 feet from the front door of the home -- when he arrived at the fire
scene.
A neighbor told Newsday the mattress had been on the porch
before the fire, but officials did not immediately say if it played a role in
the fire.
The neighbor, Ashley Fernandez, said she and a friend heard
a woman yelling, then looked out to see the blaze.
"She just started yelling and screaming out names, so
everyone could wake up and get out of the house," Fernandez said.
Source:newsday.com