Massive Fire Rips Through Hempstead Apartment Building
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. (CBSNewYork)-- Several Hempstead families are without a home tonight after a fire tore through their apartment building.
CBS2's Brian Conybeare was at the scene of the massive fire. The five-alarm fire broke out around 3 p.m. on Cathedral Avenue and started on the second floor of a six-story apartment building. Everyone was forced to evacuate.
"Saw smoke and I was like 'oh my gosh.' It was wrapping around the building and coming to my apartment and that's when I knew I had to get out," resident Natalie Dougherty said.
When firefighters arrived, flames were shooting out the windows of the second floor apartment and it traveled quickly up to the third floor.
Thankfully everyone got out safely, but with the heat index up near 100 degrees, and the heat and humidity made an already difficult job even more dangerous for firefighters loaded with safety gear.
"Between the gear and our air bottles, they weigh you down significantly and combined with the heat it makes it very stressful on the firefighters. That's why we constantly had to shuttle them in and out, that's why you see all this apparatus and all these companies here, lots of water bottles. We were out there constantly hydrating these firefighters," Nassau County Assistant Chief Michael Uttaro said.
Four firefighters were treated for minor heat-related injuries like heat exhaustion and hypothermia, in addition to one resident. They are expected to be OK. Firefighters from 20 different towns helped contain the fire for two hours, 1010 WINS' Samantha Liebman reported reported.
Neighbors went to a local store and bought cases of water and Gatorade for the firefighters to try and help keep them cool. An air-conditioned Nassau County bus was also brought to give the victims a place to cool off.
There is no word on the exact cause of fire, but it is not considered suspicious.
