L.B. firefighters extinguish West End building fire

Resident contained fire before department arrived

Posted

The Long Beach Fire Department responded to a building fire in the West End at about 8:30 p.m. on March 29.

Fire Chief RJ Tuccillo said that about 35 firefighters rushed to an apartment building at 52 Florida St., at the corner of Beech Street, and found smoke coming from a second story window. Before the firefighters arrived, a resident of the building used two dry chemical extinguishers to contain the fire, Tuccillo said.

The Nassau County Fire Marshal said the blaze was caused by two children who were playing with a lighter on their bunk beds and inadvertently ignited the mattresses, according to Tuccillo.

The firefighters entered the building and quickly extinguished the remaining fire, which was confined to a bedroom.

“It was just smoldering,” Tuccillo said. “The [resident] stopped it from getting worse.”

The resident who extinguished the fire was transported to the South Nassau Communities Hospital Emergency Department to be treated for smoke inhalation and was released a few hours later.