Surrounding cars sustained much of the damage from the fire. A car parked in an AutoZone lot on Sunrise was damaged, Scaduto said, and two cars on Brevoort were engulfed in flames. “They were basically metal shells of cars,” he said. “They were completely destroyed.”

Lawrence Altholtz, owner of Harley-Davidson of Nassau County, said one of the cars involved in the accident crashed and bumped off the doors of a garage on Brevoort owned by the shop. Altholtz is now investigating the extent of the damage to decide whether the garage needs to come down. The Harley-Davidson store, 2428 Sunrise Highway, was untouched.

Town of Hempstead Supervisor Kate Murray, who was at the scene throughout the morning, said town Building Department representatives were on hand to inspect the garage and make a determination about its future. The majority of bikes from the garage appeared undamaged, Murray said, because they were stored toward the back of the facility. They were moved this morning.

Beside Bellmore, 10 departments, including nearby units from North Bellmore, Merrick, North Merrick and East Meadow, helped extinguish the blaze. Officials poured water on the fire to put it out, in addition to spraying foam across it to ensure that the fuel would not reignite.

The collision and fire came on a frigid December evening, so Nassau Inter County Express buses were used as warming stations for the crews of firefighters who worked into the night. Scaduto could not comment whether ice on local roads caused the accident, as the police and fire investigations are ongoing.

Sunrise Highway and Newbridge Road in both directions remained closed early Wednesday for the investigation and cleanup, as well as several other residential streets. Sunrise Highway reopened at 11 a.m., according to Murray.