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Light Drizzle Fog/Mist Fire destroys Malverne home
A fire broke out in the basement of a Malverne home today while several National Grid contractors were installing an upgrade from low to high-grade gas service. The fire quickly spread through the first floor and forced one of the home’s occupants to jump from the second floor into the arms of National Grid contractors below. No injuries were reported.
There are conflicting reports as to how the fire started, and authorities are still investigating the cause. James Lang, chief of the Malverne Volunteer Fire Department, said it appeared to be a gas-set fire. Wendy Ladd, a public relations representative for National Grid, said the fire was electrical. The Herald is waiting for direct comment from the Nassau County fire marshal’s office. The contractors who were installing the gas service were not available for comment.
Devin Asch, 21, was in the house, located at 33 Nassau Ave., with his brother Ethan and girlfriend Katherine Shaw when the fire started and the National Grid workers yelled to them to get out. Asch was on the second floor and couldn’t make it down the stairs because the area was completely black from smoke. National Grid workers yelled to Asch to jump from the second story bedroom window and into their arms, which he did. All three exited the house safely before the fire departments arrived. “The workers offered to go back in and get the dog,” said Shaw. “They were so caring and incredible. They could have just left the dog in there,” she added.
Ladd, who had not spoken to the National Grid contractors before being interviewed by the Herald, said National Grid maintains that the gas was indeed shut off before their contractors began their work. The men were replacing service from an old cast iron line to a new plastic one.
Lang gave this account of the fire: “When we arrived, there was heavy fire throughout the whole basement, and it was burning through the first floor in the kitchen and dining room. I sent my guys in and did the best we could from the inside. When the floor got a little spongy, I pulled all my members out, did a roll call and made sure our guys were ok. From there, my guys went back in and worked from the outside in to put out the fire.”
Lang said firefighters found a fire in one of the walls leading up to the second floor, and opened up that wall and put the fire out there as well.
Fire departments from Lakeview, West Hempstead, Elmont, Valley Stream, Franklin Square, Lynbrook and Rockville Centre provided mutual aid at the scene, and the Malverne Volunteer Ambulance Corps was at the scene as well. According to Lang, 45-50 members of the Malverne Fire Department arrived to assist with the fire. It was the village’s third working fire this year.
According to neighbors, extensive renovations had just been made to the house in the past several years.
