F.D. fights house fire in blizzard

Weather forecasters were predicting two to three feet of snow. For most people, that meant staying inside their homes and not planning to go out until the storm passed. For Merrick’s volunteer firefighters, that was not an option.

When a significant storm threatens the South Shore, Merrick firefighters — and their brethren at other departments — camp out in their fire stations, knowing they might not otherwise be able to reach life-saving apparatus in an emergency. So, on Monday, Jan. 26, dozens of firefighters settled into Merrick’s three firehouses, hoping for a quiet night.

Department spokesman Ron Luparello said the call came at 2:10 a.m. Tuesday. It was a house fire. Close to a foot of snow lay on the roads.

Fortunately, the fire, on Stuyvesant Avenue in central Merrick, was just a block and a half from Merrick Hook and Ladder Company Number One, according to Luparello. Still, firefighters had to use pickup-truck plows to clear the way for emergency vehicles, including fire engines, a ladder truck and two ambulances, Luparello said. At least 40 firefighters responded to Stuyvesant Avenue, he said.

“Outside conditions made it very difficult due to the road conditions, heavy wind and cold,” Luparello said. “It was very difficult for firefighters to move apparatus in there.”

A fireplace fire, lit sometime earlier, had moved into a space between the fireplace’s back and an outer wall, the spokesman said. He said the fire then traveled along floor joists into the closet of a bedroom on the first floor. The homeowners called for help after they smelled smoke, Luparello reported.

He said firefighters ran two hoses inside the house, one to attack the floor fire from below, in a basement, and the other to fight the bedroom fire. The firefighters quelled the flames and then left, not yet realizing that a space behind the fireplace still smoldered, Luparello explained. At 7:25 a.m., he said, they were called back to the house on Stuyvesant Avenue, this time extinguishing the fire.

Luparello said the house suffered extensive smoke and water damage, but no one was injured.