Shore Road fire ignites near Bellmore elementary school

A fire broke out across the street from the Shore Road School on Jan. 27, Bellmore Fire Department officials said. School and fire officials confirmed that students and the homeowners were unharmed, but the blaze killed two family pets.

Vincent Scaduto, the Bellmore Fire Department public information officer, said that officials arrived at the Shore Road home just before 10 a.m. on Monday, after a neighbor noticed smoke billowing from the home and called authorities. The cause of the fire is under investigation, but it started on the home’s first floor and moved upstairs from there, Scaduto said.

The homeowners were not at the house when the fire started. Classes, however, were in session at the Shore Road School, which houses the Bellmore School District’s fifth- and sixth-graders.

School district officials said they were in constant contact with the Fire Department throughout the fire. The Shore Road School was never in danger, they said, and parents were informed about the blaze via the parent notification system. Scaduto added that students were safe, noting that they were indoors and the entrance to the school was “well across the street” from the burning house.

Fire officials extinguished the blaze in about 40 minutes. The home is still standing, but it is uninhabitable, Scaduto said.

Members of the North Bellmore, Wantagh and Merrick departments aided Bellmore in battling the blaze, and additional units from Wantagh and North Merrick stood by at Bellmore Fire Department headquarters.