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Overcast Crews work to clear collapsed ceiling at Long Beach High School
Superintendent says school will be closed until building is deemed safe
The dust had yet to settle when Point Lookout-Lido Fire Chief Brian Guerin, his fellow firefighters and other emergency crews responded to Friday’s ceiling collapse at a Long Beach High School parking lot.
The parking area, under an elevated section of building, was thick with debris — two-feet high in some areas — and the concrete slabs, dangling wires and insulation left behind when a section of suspended stucco ceiling gave way turned the parking lot usually reserved for administrative staff into rubble.
Though the school was out for the start of spring recess, Guerin said he was not sure what he and the roughly 30 firefighters would find when they arrived at the scene, and briefly feared the worst. Emergency crews proceeded with caution, he said, because it was unclear if the building was structurally compromised —or if anybody was trapped underneath the debris.
“That was our main concern first — was the structure safe and was anybody trapped under there?” he said. “It was concrete, and if someone was underneath, they would have gotten hurt or killed.”
The incident occurred at 5:10 pm on April 6, when a section of a ceiling at the eastern end of Long Beach High School’s ground level parking lot fell to the ground, at the main building of the school, in Lido Beach.
The Nassau County Police and Point-Lookout Lido Fire Department’s emergency service and K-9 units were on the scene conducting a search to make sure no one was trapped in the debris. The dust was so thick at times, Guerin said, that search crews used thermal imaging cameras as they canvassed the area. Luckily, he said, no one was injured and it was determined that the building was not at risk of a further collapse.
“We tried to use everything we could to make ourselves confident to make sure no one was under there. It was still pretty dusty when we got there, but when it cleared up you got a better look underneath,” said Guerin, adding that the search lasted an hour. “We walked around and concurred early on that nobody was there — and good thing that school was out, too.”
