COMMUNITY NEWS

Truck driver dies in blaze on Sunrise

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A box-truck driver died in a blaze after he crashed into a guardrail on Sunrise Highway and parked cars at the Wantagh Long Island Rail Road station on Jan. 13, according to the Nassau County Police Department.

Police said the identification of the driver would be confirmed after a DNA examination by the Nassau County medical examiner’s office. While the cause of the incident is under investigation, officials said the driver of a 2007 Freightliner lost control of his truck just west of Seaford Avenue before the fire broke out. 

The Wantagh Fire Department— which serves all of Wantagh and Seaford Harbor and parts of Levittown, East Meadow and Bellmore — was called to the scene shortly after 7:30 p.m. Public Information Officer Kevin Regan said that “upon arrival, they were met with a ball of fire.”

According to detectives, the driver was traveling west when he hit the guardrail and the truck overturned onto five unoccupied cars in a commuter lot next to the train station. The truck then burst into flames with the driver trapped inside, they added. 

James Bloomfield, the chief of the Wantagh Fire Department, called volunteers from all stations to the scene because of the flames’ intensity and the potential for the fire to spread along Sunrise Highway. 

“While attacking the flames, the gas tanks from several of the cars ruptured, causing a free flow of gasoline and flames,” Regan explained. “Further complicating the situation was the fact that there were live electrical lines overhead.”

The crash and fire shut down the highway in both directions between Oakland and Seaford avenues until 12:45 a.m. on Jan. 14, police said. Regan noted that it took Wantagh firefighters two and half hours to extinguish the blaze and secure the area.

After the fire was put out, the driver — the sole occupant of the truck — was found and pronounced dead on the scene. Detectives from the NCPD’s 7th, homicide and arson/bomb squads began the investigation, along with representatives from the Nassau County fire marshal’s office.

No Wantagh firefighters were hurt, Regan said. The Seaford, Bellmore and North Bellmore fire departments covered the Wantagh district during the blaze.